Pirquitas Ball Mill Almost Ready to Go

Silver Standard Resources has provided an update on the status of production at the Pirquitas mine in Jujuy province, Argentina. The Pirquitas ball mill was shut down September 24, 2011, due to the condition of the ball mill gearbox and repairs on the unit were completed October 10, 2011. The gearbox was tested under load and initially operated the ball mill; however continuous condition monitoring indicated it was functioning outside acceptable parameters. To improve ball mill reliability, the decision was subsequently made to rebuild the gearbox with all new internal parts recently received from Siemens. This work is on-going and is scheduled to be complete by mid-November. A separate new spare gearbox is scheduled for delivery in January 2012 and will provide added reliability and redundancy.