Mexican-focussed silver company Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd has announced the appointment of Carlos Alberto Silva Ramos to the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company effective 27 November 2017. Silva will report directly to the President and CEO of the company, Arturo Préstamo.
Silva is a Mexican mining engineer with a degree from the University of Guanajuato, and additionally holds an MBA from the Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores Monterrey. He has more than 30 years of experience working in the mining industry in Mexico with both senior and junior mining companies, the last 17 years of which were in senior management roles.
Most recently, Silva has been Co-Founder and CEO of Carrizal Mining S.A. de C.V., a private Mexican silver producer where, during his nine-year tenure, he successfully increased the mining and milling operations of the Zimapan mine, at Zimapan in Hidalgo, Mexico, from 1400 tpd – 3200 tpd.
Prior to this, he held the position of Strategic Planning and Engineering Superintendent for the Tayoltita mine located in San Dimas in Durango, Mexico. During his time with the Tayoltita mine, he supervised the planning and initial mill expansion from 1800 – 2100 tpd followed by a further expansion to 3200 tpd with concurrent increases in mine production.
Silva is currently the President of the Mexican Federation for Sustainable Mining, and earlier this year was recognised as one of Mexico's best miners by the Zimapan, Guanajuato and Pachuca District´s by the Asociación de Ingenieros de Minas, Metalurgistas y Geólogos de México, A.C.
Silva replaces Dante Rodriguez, who was interim COO for Santacruz. Rodriguez will remain as the company's Vice President of Exploration.
Arturo Préstamo commented: "We are extremely pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Silva as our Chief Operating Officer. Carlos has a long and successful mining career in Mexico and is well respected for his accomplishments working with precious metals producers in Mexico as an engineer and manager. We welcome his operational expertise and look forward to his integration into our team at Santacruz as we work to optimize our production assets in Mexico. We would also like to thank Mr. Rodriguez for his work overseeing the operations of the company over the past several months under challenging conditions, and we look forward to our continued work with him in his new role."