La Negra Overview

The La Negra mine is located 180 km north of Mexico City in a historic mining jurisdiction with roads, power, housing and water infrastructure in place and in good order.

The existing district was discovered during the colonial period and mined by the Spanish and Belgians through the 1800’s.

The La Negra mine was brought into commercial production by Industriales Peñoles S.A. de C.V. The mine commenced production in 1970 and produced until the mine was put on care and maintenance in 2000. During that period 6.6mm tonnes of ore were processed yielding; 36mm oz silver, 323mm lbs. zinc, 70mm lbs. copper and 161mm lbs. lead.

The La Negra mine was acquired by Aurcana in 2006 and the operation was restarted in 2007. Production is achieved by means of mine portals situated at the base of a mountain.

All permits and agreements are in place and the operation has a high level of local community support.

La Negra has a company owned housing complex for management and employees offering very good on site living conditions.

Under Aurcana’s leadership the resource base at la Negra has increased considerably in 2012 and La Negra mill went through 3 consecutive processing capacity expansions from 1,000tpd in 2007 to 1,500tpd in June 2010, to 2,500tpd in April 2012 and to 3,000tpd processing capacity in April 2013.

2006	May: La Negra 80% acquisition closed, mine redevelopment commenced
2007	April: Commenced production June: Achieved 1,000 tpd throughput
2008	June: Sold 50% of silver metal production to Silver Wheaton for US $25 million upfront
2009	July: Increased interest from 80% to 92%
2010	July: Completed 1st mill expansion to 1,500 tpd December: Completed buyback of silver stream from Silver Wheaton
2011	April - June: Brought the lead circuit fully online
2012	February: Increased ownership to 99.9% April: Completed 2nd mill expansion increasing capacity to 2,500 tpd October: Announced significant increase in mineral resource estimate
2013	March 28: Completed 3rd mill expansion increasing capacity to 3,000 tpd
2014	September: Operational changes implemented December: New resource estimate received
2015	Mine plan implemented