Page 34 By Frank Giorno Since Pan American Silver pur chased T ahoe Resources in No vember 2018 the question on the minds of residents in the T immins Gold Region is what role will the T immins W est Gold Mine Bell Creek Mine and Mill have in Pan American Silver s future T ahoe s T immins Operations have been incorporated into Pan American Silver s business and not much change can be seen that is visible said Siren Fisekci VP Investor Re lations and Corporate Communica tions The same operational team is in place managing the mines on our behalf Siren added The name will continue as T ahoe Re sources As for the long term Si ren said Pan American Silver is still focusing on completing the integra tion of T ahoe Resources into Pan American Silver The prize in the transaction in the 107 Billion purchase of T ahoe Re sources is the shuttered T ahoe Es cobal Mine in Guatemala But Pan Pan American Silver buys T ahoe What s the future of T immins operations American Silver produces more than silver Pan American Silver s primary focus is on silver mining but the company also mines gold and base metals as byproduct of sil ver mining In 2018 Pan American actually produced more gold per oz than silver 178 thousand oz gold compared to 25 thousand oz for silver Pan American also had a sizeable zinc lead and copper production Our acquisition of T ahoe Resourc es doubles our silver reserves ex pands our geographic diversifca tion and results in Pan American becoming the largest publiclytrad ed silver mining company by free foat said Michael Steinmann the President and CEO of Pan Ameri can Silver in a letter to sharehold ers contained in the company s 2018 annual report Operations at Escobal are cur rently suspended pending com pletion of an ILO 169 consultation process court approval and com munity engagement eforts to build a social licenseThe Escobal Mine was ordered to close in 2017 by the Guatemala Supreme Court and more public consultations were or dered The deal was structured so that payments for the Escobal por tion would be made once the mine became operational Along with Escobal Pan America Silver acquired from T ahoe the La Arena and Shahuindo gold mines located in northwestern Peru the Bell Creek gold mine and mill and the T immins W est gold mine locat ed in T immins T immins Mayor George Pirie in the State of the City Address on Janu ary 24 2019 acknolwedged the concern caused by Pan Ameri can Silver s takeover of T ahoe Re sources Addressing the purchase of T ahoe Mayor Pirie was optimistic that Pan American Silver would continue to the T immins mining operations As we know Pan American Sil ver has made a takeover ofer for T ahoe which of course would in clude the T immins W est and Bell Creek Mine and Mill On February 12 2019 ofcials from T ahoe Resources and Pan American Silver were on hand for the opening of the new Bell Creek Shaft The deal closed on Febru ary 22 2019 The Bell Creek Shaft will even tually measure 2000 metres in depth and will double production to 80000 oz of gold per year Pan American Silver s Outlook for 2019 issued in its 2018 Annual Report on March 12 2019 does not include the assets acquired un der the T ahoe acquisition They do plan on including the T ahoe ass ests in the second quarter updated guidance document In the meantime it will be business as usual at T immins W est and Bell Creek T ahoe staf dignitaries contractors and more who took part of the ofcial opening of the Bell Creek shaft Maija HoggettT imminsT oday