The La Negra mine was discovered and developed by Industriales Peņoles S.A. de C.V. The mine commenced production in 1970 and produced until the mine was put on care and maintenance in 2000.
Historical production as reported by Peņoles was approximately 6.6 million tonnes of ore with metal production as follows:
| 36 million oz | Silver |
| 323 million lbs | Zinc |
| 70 million lbs | Copper |
| 161 million lbs | Lead |
Historical Reserves
In addition to the 6.6 million tonnes of ore mined by Peņoles the historical reserves* are 1.22 million tones grading:
1,000 tpd mill:
- 3 stage crushing plant
- 8' x 10' ball mill
- upgrades being done to increase capacity from 800 tpd to 1,000 tpd
- mill produces zinc, copper and lead concentrates
23 known ore bodies:
- all accessible by existing workings
- large orebodies
- amendable to low cost long hole, open stope mining methods
- all reserves are above the 2,000 level main haulage way - ore
Exploration potential is very good:
Infrastructure is in place:
- power provided by existing powerlines
- company owned housing
- water available
All permits and agreements in place:
- very good local support for the project