The lower cost production plan is mostly exploiting a totally new area of the mine discovered by old ECU managment but never developed because the ramp was not completed. AUM management drilled some new holes in this area and had third party assistenc ein developinbg the new production plan which seems to be working well. The new ore material is higher grade and they are able to increase recoveries compared to Santa Juana high grade material plus they re-scaled the production team, all have contributed to lower costs along with tigher input costs like reagents, etc. The zinc & lead are not part of the revenue projection and are being used to lower costs for silver/gold eq. ounces, pretty standard.

This new ramp offers access to numerous other areas with potential low cost feed so expansion will be easy in the future when timing, market conditions and capital allow a much larger milling facility. For now the present plan will suffice and I hope they can re-start the oxide mill next. This is just for Velardena and management is planning for a second production area in Mexico as stated plus they have El Quevar which is still a very interesting high potential project and still numerous other exploration projects in inventory.

Someday some sanity will return to this sector and more legit valuations but until then management must live within their means and play small ball befitting the times but the potential is still here in a big way if it can be exploted in future which requires both good managenment and proper conditions.