VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - March 10, 2009) - SNS Silver Corp. (TSX VENTURE:SNS) and Sunshine Precious Metals Incorporated have signed an interim lease to operate the historical Sunshine Silver Mine and Mill near Wallace, Idaho.
"This is a tremendous step for SNS Silver as the move allows the company to integrate its operations at the Crescent Silver Mine with the infrastructure already in place at the neighboring Sunshine property. This will be the first time these projects have operated under a single management team and will thus introduce enormous opportunity for exploration, mill feed and future expansion and development. It's especially good news for the region which came very close to losing one of its greatest silver properties due to Sterling Mining Co.'s termination of the mine lease and relinquishment of the mine to SPMI on the 19th of February," said SNS President and CEO David Greenway.
On February 19th, Crescent Inc. (SNS Silver's U.S. subsidiary) placed 24 hr security personnel on site and accepted responsibility for the utility expenses at the Sunshine Mine in order to prevent the power shut-off scheduled by the outgoing operators. This action prevented millions of dollars of potential damages to the electrical and operating systems in both the mill and the mine. To further mitigate the negative impacts of a temporary shutdown Crescent Inc. has also hired key personnel to maintain the Mine property in its present status. There is a great appreciation for the efforts of all of the people who worked toward rehabilitating the Sunshine Mine; two experienced maintenance specialists and the previous Safety supervisor were recently hired to promote an efficient and expedient transition towards renewed operations.
In 2008 the Sunshine Mine and Mill was made operational after many man hours of rehabilitation and millions of dollars. Production ceased in November, 2007 and the Mill was shut down properly by experienced personnel. The Sterling Tunnel is currently being maintained with pumping and ventilation efforts to preserve the electrical substations as well as the new state of the art electrical components and switchgear in the Silver Summit hoist room. One of the top priorities of Crescent Inc. is restarting and continuing the de-watering efforts of the previous operator to gain critical access to areas of the Mine targeted for exploration and production. A new Mine plan will most likely focus on exploration priorities in the early stages with moderate production opportunities used to offset operating costs. There is a strong possibility of a new discovery in several of the areas of interest prioritized for exploration. This would dramatically affect the long term potential of the Sunshine Mine.
Said SPMI President Robert Mori, "The mine lease was amicably terminated on Feb.
