We are a mining and minerals production and exploration company focused on
precious and base metals in Argentina, Mexico and the United States. On January
24, 2012, we changed our name from US Gold Corporation to McEwen Mining Inc.
after the completion of the acquisition of Minera Andes Inc. (“Minera
Andes”) by way of a statutory plan of arrangement under the laws of the
Province of Alberta, Canada.
We own 100% of the El Gallo 1 mine in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico and a 49%
interest in Minera Santa Cruz S.A. (“MSC”), the owner and operator
of the producing San José mine in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina,
which is controlled by the majority owner of the joint venture, Hochschild Mining
plc (“Hochschild”). In addition to our operating properties, we
also hold interests in advanced stage and exploration stage properties and projects
in Argentina, Mexico and the United States, including the Gold Bar (“Gold
Bar”) and Los Azules (“Los Azules”) projects.
Our objective is to increase the value of our shares through the exploration
and extraction of gold, silver and other valuable minerals. Other than the San
José mine in Argentina, we generally conduct our exploration activities
as the sole operator, but we may enter into arrangements with other companies
through joint venture or similar agreements in an effort to achieve our strategic
objectives. We hold our mineral interests and property and operate our business
through various subsidiary companies, and except for MSC, each of which is owned
entirely, directly, or indirectly, by us.
Our principal executive office is located at 150 King Street West, Suite 2800,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5H 1J9 and our telephone number is (866) 441-0690.
We also maintain offices in San Juan, Argentina; Guamuchil, Mexico and Elko,
Nevada (U.S.). Our website is www.mcewenmining.com. We make available our periodic
reports and news releases and certain of our corporate governance documents,
including our Code of Ethics, on our website. Our common stock is listed on
the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) and on the Toronto Stock Exchange
(“TSX”) under the symbol “MUX”.
Gold and silver are extracted from mineralized material, by either milling
or heap leaching, depending on, among other things, the amount of gold and silver
contained in the material, whether the material is naturally oxidized or not
oxidized, the amenability of the material to treatment and related capital and
operating costs.
At the El Gallo 1 mine, mineralized material is processed using heap leaching
methods. Heap leaching consists of stacking crushed, oxidized material on impermeable
pads, where a weak cyanide solution is applied to the surface of the heap to
leach the gold and silver. The gold and silver-bearing solution is then collected
and pumped to an Adsorption – Desorption - Recovery (“ADR”)
processing plant consisting of carbon columns, stripping circuits and a precious
metal refinery to process gold and silver into doré bars. Doré
bars are then shipped from the mine to a third party refiner to obtain bullion.
The processing plant at the San José mine is composed of conventional
crushing, grinding and flotation circuits. Approximately half of the silver-gold
flotation concentrate is subsequently processed in an intensive cyanide leaching
circuit with the dissolved gold and silver recovered by electrowinning of a
clarified solution followed by smelting to produce doré. The doré
is then sent to refiners to obtain bullion. The balance of the flotation concentrate
is filtered and shipped to a smelter for further processing.