March is Best Operating Month Ever for ECU Silver

ECU Silver Mining Inc. (TSX: ECU) achieved its best month of operations in March 2010 since the Company commenced operations of its oxide mill 11 months ago.  For the month, the Company produced 79,443 silver equivalent ounces, a 27% increase over February.  And using an average silver price of $17 per ounce, the Company’s production in March would be valued at $1.35 million.  Additional highlights from March include the following:

• 12% increase in silver to 33,614 ounces;
• 40% increase in gold to 705 ounces;
• 107% increase of gold in pyrite concentrate to 336 ounces, which was added to the pyrite inventory;
• 27% increase in silver equivalent to 79,443 ounces, using a silver-to-gold ratio of 65 to one (base metals not included as equivalents); and
• Average daily throughput at the oxide mill of approximately 494 tonnes per day (“tpd”).

Please note that for the last year the Company has reported its production numbers on a monthly basis, but going forward will only report on a quarterly basis. 

Read More

Dejour’s 2010 IPAA Webcast Now Available For Download

Dejour Co-Chairman Stephen R. Mut presented today at the Oil and Gas Investment Symposium (OGIS) organized by the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) in New York City.

Interested parties are invited to listen to this insightful 20-minute presentation (audio file) at:

http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/conflobby.zhtml?ticker=DEJ&item_id=2726420.

ECU Silver Releases 2009 Year End Results

ECU Silver (TSX: ECU) released results for the year ended December 31, 2009.  In short and in no particular order, we see lots of positives, as follows:

• Revenue from metals sales of $6.6 million in 2009 versus $0.7 million in 2008, an increase of $5.9 million or 843%.
• First 10 months of operations through February 2010, ECU had gold and silver sales of approximately 750,000 silver equivalent ounces.
• Gold and silver sales in 2010 expected to be significantly higher than in 2009.
• Net loss of $8.4 million ($0.03/share) in 2009 versus net loss of $18.0 million ($0.07/share) in 2008. 
• Experiencing better receoveries at oxide mill as a result of certain improvements, which should translate into higher amounts of gold and silver for 2010. 
• Scoping study to be released shortly, outlining the preliminary economics of a 1,500 tonne  per day sulphide operation capable of producing 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 silver equivalent ounces per year.

Read More

ECU Silver Reports Production for February

ECU Silver (TSX: ECU) reported results for February 2010 of 65,101 total silver equivalent ounces.  In terms of its two milling operations, 53,735 silver equivalent ounces came from the oxide mill and 13,985 silver equivalent ounces came from the sulphide mill.  At $16 silver, once again ECU’s monthly production is in excess of $1 million.

During February, ECU continued its testing to better understand the metallurgy which resulted in subsequent adjustments to enhance recoveries of both gold and silver. To help the Company accomplish its objective of maximizing recoveries in a timely manner, it hired outside consultants with particular expertise in this area.  We therefore look forward to seeing results from March. 

Read More

ECU Posts Excellent Gold & Silver Recoveries for January – 96,000+ oz Silver Equivalent

ECU Silver rang up another stellar production result for January 2010 – more than the November and December 2009 results combined -totaling 96,986 silver equivalent ounces! In a press release out this morning ECU Silver reported metal recovery numbers for January 2010 of 59,510 ag-equivalent ounces from the oxide mill and 37,476 ag-equivalent ounces from their sulphide mill.

From this result, it looks as if ECU’s plan to continue ramping up its throughput of mineralized material at their Velardena property are going according to plan. At $16 silver, the gold and silver values work out to roughly $15 million on an annualized basis.

AS ECU continues to build up capacity at their Velardena property in Mexico, we expect these numbers to keep going north. We recently sat down with Steve Altmann, ECU’s President to discuss their current operations and plans for future growth – and if you haven’t had a chance, we recommend everyone get up to speed on ECU with this in depth interview with Steve – here is a link to the interview and we have included today’s press release below as well:

ECU Silver Reports on Gold and Silver Operations for January 2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Feb. 18, 2010) – ECU Silver Mining Inc. (TSX:ECU – News)

ECU Silver Mining Inc. is pleased to report on its silver and gold fabrication for the month ending January 2010.

Highlights include:

   - Silver generated in January was greater than the ounces
     generated in November and December of 2009, combined.

   - January yielded a silver equivalent of 59,510 ounces from
     the oxide mill and 37,476 ounces from the sulphide mill.

   - Average daily throughput at the oxide mill was 650 tonnes
     per day ("tpd").

 

As expected, the amount of silver equivalent generated in January was approximately 120% greater than December and more than November and December of 2009, combined.

More here.

Expectations for 2010: An Interview with Steve Altmann of ECU Silver

We recently sat down with Mr. Stephen Altmann, President of ECU Silver Mining Inc. (TSX: ECU) to get a sense of what to expect in 2010.  ECU Silver is well positioned for growth in 2010, having recently completed a financing, with expected significant results from operations in January, and a planned scoping study scheduled for completion in Q1 2010.  In this exclusive BabyBulls interview, he discusses the Company’s mineral resource estimates, the Company’s milling capabilities, and highlights from 2009. 

BabyBulls: Steve, to start things off could you give a brief description of your company’s history? 

Stephen Altmann: Sure, we are a company that that has been around for several years now. The area was mined many decades ago by artisanal miners which, in this day and age, highlighted the area as a very lucrative exploration area. Over the past 12 years we’ve been focused on exploration essentially growing the mineral resource by over 1,600% over the past four years, in particular, where today we have identified a large 43-101 mineral resource and also have two operating mills on the site.

BB: Can you give us an overview of your primary properties?

SA: We have three properties right now – we have our main Velardena property and immediately adjacent to it we have the Chicago property and then further to the north, about eight miles away is our San Diego property, where we have a 50/50 joint venture with a junior exploration company. Our main focus of interest  continues to be at the Velardena main property – where we have mining operations, milling operations and that’s where we’ve done the bulk of our exploration activities.

BB: So all of your active properties are in Mexico then?

SA: Yes, all of our properties are in Mexico and we are the registered title holder of all of the claims on our property.

BB: Over the last several years you have identified a significant indicated and inferred resource that’s primarily silver at your Velardena property. Will you continue your exploration efforts or do you see yourself transitioning your focus more over to the production side?

SA: Right now, as you’ve correctly point out, we have a large mineral resource. We have a resource of forty million ounces of silver equivalent in the measured and indicated range, and we have another three hundred and ninety one million ounces of silver equivalent in our inferred category. It’s important to note that our mineral resource is very continuous and we have a lot of confidence in our inferred resource due to the material continuity of our resource at depth and laterally. Given that we have a very bullish outlook for silver and gold prices going forward, we do want to ensure that our milling operations are running at their optimal levels. And so, as with any mining company, the focus of this Company is to eventually grow this into a mid to senior tier silver and gold producer. In our case, we have the opportunity to experience growth both on the mineral resource side and on the production side. The resource currently is large enough to provide feed for a very large production operation down the road, however the continuity of the veins that I mentioned earlier, give rise to the opportunity for very strong potential to materially enhance the size of our resource. So we’re in an attractive situation where we have a large resource, we have milling and mining operations on site and we have the opportunity and ability to significantly grow both, on the production side and on the mineral resource side.

ECU Silver Receives Environmental License for Current and Future Operations

ECU Silver Mining Inc. (TSX: ECU) has received a “Licencia Ambiental Unica” (“LAU”), which is effectively a unified environmental license.

The LAU replaces all existing environmental permits for the operations at Velardena and provides the necessary license for expansion of the current sulphide operations by adding a 1500 tonnes per day (“tpd”) mill as well as the continuation of all current operations.

The granting of the LAU is a very important accomplishment in the Company’s work to expand its mining operations that will eventually encompass a new 1500 tpd mill for processing sulphides. The scoping study which will outline, on a preliminary basis, the economics for the larger milling operations, will be delivered by the end of the first quarter of 2010 and is the first phase of the Company’s future plan to grow to 5000 tpd.

Read More

ECU’s Results for January to Equal Those of November and December Combined

Patience is a virtue!  Good news comes to those who wait!  Well, you get the message.  Prior to today, ECU Silver Mining Inc. (TSX: ECU) last reported results from October, which seems like a long time ago.  In fairness, the Company was prohibited from releasing November and December results while awaiting receipt from the securities regulatory authorities with respect to its final prospectus.

The long awaited results do not disappoint.  In November, the Company’s operations yielded a combined 74,766 silver equivalent ounces.  At $17 an ounce silver, this represents approximately $1.3 million.  In December, the Company’s operations yielded a combined 67,914 silver equivalent ounces, which at $17 an ounce silver, represents almost $1.2 million.

More importantly, results for January 2010 month to date are “close” to the above reported number of ounces reported by the Company for November and December combined.  That’s right, combined.  Math isn’t my strong suit, but according to my calculations January should be around 140,000 silver equivalent ounces or approximately $2.5 million.

But wait, there’s still more!  According to Stephen Altmann, President of ECU Silver, “Our goal in 2010 will be to focus on three priorities. First and foremost is to ensure profitable operations in order to maintain a strong balance sheet; second, complete our Scoping Study; and third, resume exploration activities, with internally generated cash, to further enhance our mineral resource and delineate the rich massive sulphide discovery.”

Read More

Geovic Mining and ECU Silver Named to the Constituents of Commodity Companies Index

There are over 1,000 companies of various market capitalizations trading on the Canadian and/or U.S. stock exchanges that are involved in some aspect of commodities be it in mining, drilling, agriculture, exploring, developing or financing. That being said there are only about 100 companies that have warrants that trade and only 35 have warrants that are of 24 months duration or longer.

Of the 35 companies, Geovic Mining  Corp. (OTCBB: GVCM; TSX: GMC) is one of ten base metals constituent companies included and ECU Silver Mining Inc. (TSX: ECU) is one of 20 gold and silver constituent companies.

Read More

ECU Silver Closes $12 Million Private Placement of Special Warrants

In a press release this afternoon, ECU Silver Mining Inc. (TSX: ECU) announced the closing of a private placement of special warrants for total gross proceeds of approximately $12.2 million.

The size of the offering was increased due to the strong market support for the offering. A total of 16,946,000 special warrants were issued at a price of $0.72 per special warrant. Each special warrant entitles its holder to acquire upon exercise one unit, with each unit being comprised of one common share of ECU and one-half of a common share purchase warrant. Each full purchase warrant will entitle its holder to acquire one common share at a price of $0.90 at any time on or before December 9, 2011.

Read More