Economy & Business - February 2023

BOLIVIA | ‘World class’ silver deposit discovered. On 19 January Bolivia’s mining minister, Ramiro Villaviciencio, described a silver deposit discovered in Potosí department by Canada’s New Pacific Metals Corp as “world class” and said that the government will launch efforts to estimate the total value of the reserves. The CEO of New Pacific Metals, Rui Feng, had said on 18 January that the Silver Sand deposit “can be developed into one of the world’s largest silver mines with a long mine life and high profit margins”. The results of a preliminary evaluation of the deposit were shared on New Pacific Metals’ website on 9 January, with the company predicting a “14-year mine life producing approximately 171m ounces total payable silver metal”. It predicted that “annual payable metal production exceeds 15m ounces of silver in years one through four, with LOM [life-of-mine] average annual payable metal production exceeding 12m ounces of silver”.