Resource World Magazine

o c t o b e r / n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 5 www.resourceworld.com 17 Great Panther Silver Ltd. [GPR-TSX; GPL-NYSE] is busy multi- tasking these days. It is a producer, developer and an explorer. The company owns and operates the flagship Guanajuato Mine Complex in central Mexico, the nearby San Ignacio Mine and the Topia Mine in northwest Durango State. Great Panther also has early and advanced exploration projects, including the Guadalupe de los Reyes in Mexico and the Coricancha Mine in Peru. In an interview, Robert Archer, PGeo., President and CEO, spoke to Resource World. Resource World: Is Great Panther taking steps to replace reserves and resources? Robert Archer: Yes, at Topia we have revised the methodol- ogy to interpret and build our resource model which has resulted in increasing resources without much additional drilling. We also added resources through underground development. At Guanajuato, the biggest change there has been at the satel- lite San Ignacio Mine that started commercial production last year. We have been building resources there by drilling step-out holes. This has changed the whole operation because San Ignacio is now contributing over 30% of the ore to the Guanajuato Complex. RW: Have you maxed out resources at Guanajuato? RA: While our main focus is on San Ignacio, we are doing a lot more underground drilling at the main Guanajuato Mine itself. The ore there is much more complex and it's spread out over a 4 km strike length and, being at a 500 to 600-metre depth, it is more time consuming and costly to define resources. Over time, we have mostly been replacing what we have been mining. This is why San Ignacio is playing such as important role. To date, Guanajuato has produced over a billion ounces of sil- ver over 400 years of mining. I believe there is still much room for discoveries of extensions to the known resources. It will just take more drilling. RW: How was Great Panther able to reduce all-in sustaining costs by 49%? RA: A combination of factors. One, we increased our cut-off grades at most of the areas we are mining and two, an increas- ing focus on grade control. This resulted in a decreased tonnage in material processed. This combination has reduced unit costs considerably. A third factor that has worked in our favor this year has been the exchange rate. Our costs are in pesos or in Canadian dollars [at head office] while revenues are in US dollars. RW: Do you expect silver and gold production to increase dur- ing the remainder of the year? RA: Yes. We are continuing to mine at a higher rate than we did last year. After the first two quarters we increased our guid- ance from 3.5 to 3.6 million ounces of silver equivalent for the year. By the end of Q2, we had already produced 2 million ounces, so we have increased our guidance to 3.8 to 3.9 million ounces. However, we will probably exceed that. RW: What steps are you taking to place the Coricancha Mine in Peru back into production? RA: The first thing we are doing is drilling the higher grade zones within the better and more accessible vein systems. We are trying to identify readily accessible measured and indicated resources that are profitable at prevailing prices. We are also evaluating development and mining costs. We are looking at ways to get the costs down from what they were previ- ously under Nyrstar. Processing costs will also be evaluated as well as increasing grades. We have a two-year option on the proj- ect which will take us to May 2017. RW: What are your plans for the Guadalupe de los Reyes Project in Mexico? RA: We are currently drilling there focusing on the higher grade areas of the known veins. We want to revise the existing PEA. The old PEA envisioned a low-grade open pit model. We feel that since it is a vein-type, it is better suited for an under- ground operation. For an underground mine, we will model it for a higher grade. We plan to have a resource estimate by year-end. We haven't yet decided whether to build a mill or not; that will depend on the new PEA and the option arrangement. RW: Are you bullish on silver? RA: Yes, I think that having been through a number of cycles, I hope we are at the bottom. I do see things turning around and getting better, although it might be a slower climb than we would like. n Great Panther SiLver – a growing producer by Ellsworth Dickson Underground mining operations at Great Panther Silver's Guanajuato Mine Complex in central Mexico. Photo courtesy Great Panther Silver Ltd.

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