Oscar González Rocha, CEO, Americas Mining Corporation • Interview

million ounces of silver in 2020

What was the objective behind the merger of Santa Cruz Silver Mining and Carrizal Mining?

In Santa Cruz, we are trying to reach our business vision of continuing to do responsible, sustainable, and profitable mining in Mexico. With Santa Cruz in the stock market, we can access a larger amount of capital. In Mexico, financial institutions do not know the industry well so it is more difficult to finance a project, especially given the volume of capital the mining industry needs. Merging with a company on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) is the best option. It is easy to access capital in Toronto when you have good assets to keep building on, whereas in Mexico it is difficult. I chose Santa Cruz because it already had experience in the stock market but could benefit from the operational experience of Carrizal Mining in Mexico. The two companies are both 10 years old. Carrizal Mining was created with zero investment; we have created 750 jobs and now produce close to the equivalent of 5 million ounces of silver annually, more than Santa Cruz Silver was producing before, even though it was listed on the stock exchange. Considering that we were able to do so much without capital, our access to the TSX makes our possibilities even bigger. We have good mining projects with a solid future, especially in Zacatecas. With this merger, Santa Cruz now operates three mines: Zimapan, Vetagrande, and Charcas San Luis de Potosí. We also have projects to develop other operations, one of which is Panuco in Zacatecas. It will start producing in 1.5 years if we can get the USD20 million in CAPEX needed to build this mine. because they believed in the project. At one point, my engineers asked if we could grind and concentrate ore for about a week of production. We made the calculations and decided to do it. We produced the concentrate, we sold it, and my first billing that week was USD300,000. That is how I started.

We must consolidate the company and produce 6 million ounces of silver by the end of 2020. Currently, Santa Cruz produces 1.2 million ounces. We are looking for an appropriate way to finance the growth of the company, though we are rich in assets currently. We need to get our story out and take this company to a new level. Our organic growth will come from Veta Grande Zacatecas as we develop Minillas and explore San Manuel and San Gil, both areas that have blue sky potential.

What is Santa Cruz silver doing different when it comes to socially responsible mining?

I have been working on obtaining the certification in responsible mining, something the Mexican Subsecretary of Mining has mentioned recently. The certificate, granted by the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), is already an international standard. In 2017, I started the process to earn the IRMA certificate for our Zimapan mine. It will be the first mining operation in the country to receive such award and the second worldwide. We were working hard on the required compliance protocols and will submit all the papers work for IRMA to review. Mexico’s Subsecretary of Mining wants this certificate to be a benchmark for the entire industry. ✖