http://www.theaureport.com/pub/na/12821

...

Since the legislative changes, increases in metals prices over the past decade also have prompted companies to put old mines back to work. As Ganoza puts it, "The emergence of higher prices in silver space resulted in the restart of small producers." Reopening mines that had been shuttered is rebuilding and revitalizing towns, creating thousands of jobs and hundreds of spin-off businesses.

One of those reopened mines is now Silvermex Resources Inc.'s (SLX:TSX; GGCRF:OTC) prize property, the La Guitarra mine. Located in the Temascaltepec Mining District, where mining dates to pre-Columbian times, La Guitarra has a checkered past with a number of different owners. Silvermex restarted operations there in April 2010 and the mine has been coming on strong ever since. Through extensive redevelopment and application of operational efficiencies, La Guitarra achieved optimal output of 800,000 ounces (800 Koz) of annual silver equivalent at 320 tons/day in November 2011, ahead of schedule. That was ramp-up work, getting the mill running at full capacity.

For the time being, Callahan sees "the opportunity to have more deposits like La Guitarra, because the district is pretty consistent with gold and silver," and expects to "produce somewhere in the 0.75–1 Moz range of silver equivalent in those deposits." He says that Silvermex's current focus is to "take the production to wherever it can go, drill and grow the resource, generate cash flow and grow the district."

The company has an advantage, Callahan says, in that "not only do we own this mine, we own the entire district. That's unique for a company our size. This asset really should have been in the hands of one of the bigger players because it deserves that kind of attention and investment."

...