San Bartolomé, claimed by Coeur to be the world’s largest pure silver mine, is located in the Potosí district of Bolivia, historically the richest silver mining district in South America. An inaugural event included representation from Coeur, local and national mining cooperatives, and the Bolivian government.

The San Bartolomé project’s crushing, milling, leaching, thickening, Merrill-Crowe and smelting facilities are fully commissioned, and the plant is producing doré bullion containing greater than 95% silver for shipment to overseas refiners. Coeur expects the project to produce 6 million oz of silver in 2008 and 9 million oz in 2009. Operating cash costs once the plant reaches full-scale operation are expected to be $4.10/oz of silver (excluding royalties and production taxes of $2.03/oz).

San Bartolomé mines several distinct gravel-like, silver-bearing deposits formed by erosion of the silver-rich upper part of the Cerro Rico volcanic dome complex. Mining conditions are amenable to application of free-digging surface-mining techniques, with no need for drilling and blasting. The mine produces about 8,000 st/d of ore and after washing and screening sends about 5,000 st/d to the grinding circuit. The mine is based on an estimated 153 million oz of probable silver mineral reserves and an additional 34 million oz of measured and indicated silver mineral resources. Mine life is estimated at 14 years.

The mineral rights at San Bartolomé are owned by COMIBOL, the Bolivian mining authority, which leases the rights to Empresa Manquiri, Coeur’s wholly-owned Bolivian subsidiary, and to the cooperatives. Both COMIBOL and the mining cooperatives receive a production royalty. Mining taxes applicable to San Bartolomé production are returned to the local community in Potosí.

Palmarejo, a silver-gold open-pit/underground project in Chihuahua state, Mexico, is targeted to produce 5.1 million oz of silver and 67,000 oz of gold in 2009, rising to 7.4 million oz of silver and 92,000 oz of gold in 2010.

As of early June, the full Palmarejo mining fleet had been commissioned, and open-pit pre-stripping was progressing. North and south portals for the underground mine were well-established, and a total of 560 m of development had been driven. Earthwork for a single-level process facility was complete, concrete work was advanced, and structural, tank and piping installation had begun in the flotation reagent area. Fabrication for a modular metallurgical laboratory was underway. Preliminary earthworks on the phase-one tailings and environmental control dam had begun.

Capital expenditures to achieve production are estimated at $297.6 million.

The Palmarejo open-pit tonnage totals 6.1 million mt of probable reserves, grading 1.09 g/mt gold and 137.9 g/mt silver and containing of 214,900 oz of gold and 27.1 million oz of silver. The underground probable reserve tonnage totals 3.7 million mt, grading 4.49 g/mt gold and 295.9 g/mt silver and containing 536,200 oz of gold and 35.3 million oz of silver.

Donald Birak, Coeur’s senior vice president, exploration said, “These new proven and probable mineral reserve results are just for the Palmarejo deposit, which is one of three large mineral deposits identified to date in this large and prospective property. We expect to increase these initial reserves during the remainder of the year, and beyond, through continued exploration of the district’s multiple exploration targets. New mineral resource models are currently underway for both the Guadalupe and La Patria silver and gold-bearing structures and are expected to contribute to future mineral reserves through additional drilling and engineering analysis.”