Pan American Silver's Navidad May Produce 275.5 Million Ounces

A preliminary assessment of Pan American Silver's Navidad project found it could yield up to 275.5 million ounces of silver during the estimated 17-year life of the mine.

Possibly better than that, it is thought it could be the opening salvo in the discovery of what Pan American is calling a "new and prolific silver district" in Chubut, Argentina.

For Pan American and Navidad, they're looking to spend about $760 million at a cost of $6.96 an ounce. That's net of by-product credits.

Pan American Silver's CEO Geoff Burns said, "As we expected, Navidad will be one of the world's largest primary silver mines, boasting a long mine life and significant exploration potential."

By-products at the project include about three billion pounds of lead.

There's a big problem of course, as at this time the province of Chubut, where the resource is located, doesn't allow open pit mining. The assumption by Pan American is the ban will be removed and they'll be allowed to develop the asset.

Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:PAAS) Could Benefit from Argentina Policy Changes

Pan American Silver's Navidad silver project

Current policies in the Chubut province of Argentina disallow open-pit mining, but that could change soon, and Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:PAAS) benefit nicely from it because of their Navidad silver project, which is located in Chubut.

The Navidad silver project came with the acquisition of Aquiline Resources in the early part of 2010. Pan American has hopes and expectations this could be opened up for them, and there's now a good chance it will.

In other related discussion, bans on cyanide will probably also be lifted in conjunction with the open-pit mining.