13th Feb 2019 08:14
LONDON (Alliance News) - Hochschild Mining PLC on Wednesday said it suspended operations at its Arcata precious metal mine, in south west Peru, to place it under care and maintenance, partly due to low silver prices.
The FTSE 250 miner expects that full care and maintenance will be in effect by the second quarter of 2019.
Hochschild will continue to conduct an exploration programme and permitting work, along with a regular review of the market conditions for potential restart of operations in the future.
The Arcata unit had already been fully impaired for accounting purposes, Hochschild said.
"This decision has been expected but is still disappointing for the organisation. Arcata was the company's first mining operation and started producing in 1964. It has been an excellent operation with an outstanding workforce and supportive communities but the continuing low silver price over some years and current geological conditions leaves us no option," Chief Executive Officer Ignacio Bustamante said.
"We have recently been making the necessary preparations and will work closely with our employees and key contractors to mitigate the impact and manage carefully the staged shutdown of operations whilst maintaining our community programmes."
Hochschild shares were trading down 1.7% at 187.10 pence each.
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