San José I Argentina

The San José silver/gold mine is located in Argentina in the province of Santa Cruz, 1,750km south-southwest of Buenos Aires. The mineralisation at the San José property represents a low sulphidation type with quartz sulphide veins with economic silver and gold values.

Title to the San José property is held by Minera Santa Cruz, S.A. ("MSC"), the holding and operating company set up under the terms of an option and joint venture agreement between Minera Andes, S.A. (49%) and Hochschild Mining Argentina (51%), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hochschild.

San José commenced operations in June 2007 and in the second half of 2008, plant capacity was increased from 750 to 1,500 tonnes per day. The mine produced 5 million ounces of silver and 77 thousand ounces of gold in 2009.