Silvercorp Metals Inc

If Canada-based Gold Standard has the ambition to claim the establishment of the standard in silver mining, its home rival Silvercorp Metals Inc can be rightfully named “the tamer of the Asian tiger”: most of its mining, development, and exploration projects are located in the People’s Republic of China – the third largest producer of silver in the world and the world’s fastest growing economy before the outbreak of the global financial crisis. If Silver Standard is beating the drum for being the best and most aggressively developing company on the silver market, Silvercorp is proud of being China’s biggest silver producer at the lowest possible cost.

The tier I miner is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SVM and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol SVM.TO. Silvercorp’s strategy for success on the partially state-controlled Chinese metal market involves low capital and operating costs, short construction terms, and locally-sourced supplies. The company is also operating very close to end-consumers, feeding the Chinese smelters with gold, silver, zinc, and lead concentrate.

In an article of October 22, 2008, The Vancouver Sun quotes market analysts naming Silvercorp Metals Inc. the eighth strongest publicly-traded company in British Columbia. However, the company’s mind-blowing debut was a year earlier – in October 2007, when the miner was listed as the second strongest publicly-traded company in British Columbia.
The company’s first major breakthrough on Chinese soil came in April 2006, when the producer was granted exploration work permit and launched its own mining production. Less than a year after, end-March 2007, the company announced a net profit of US $25 million.

The Ying silver mine, located in China’s province of Henan, south of Beijing, is one of the most important projects of Silvercorp. The mining property contains high-grade deposits of silver, zinc and lead. “We made a discovery and we put it into practice. The reason for our fast growth is that we switched from exploration to mining, and this strategy paid back billions in net profit and assets,” explains Silvercorp Metals Inc. CEO Dr. Rui Feng in an interview with the Vancouver Sun. “About seven per cent of the material at Ying is of such high grade that it doesn’t have to be milled; we ship it directly to smelters,” continues Dr. Feng.

Exploring and making profit from China’s rich natural resources, Silvercorp spared no effort on charity. A case in point is the earthquake of 2008 when the country’s Sichuan region was hardly hit. Dr. Feng and his team donated twenty-one sets of tents, totaling $40,000 and $700,000 as a contribution to the international relief campaign.

Although Silver Corp. Inc. reported a 25-percent drop in profit for the first half of the year – $7.5 million (end-June 2009) compared to $11.6 million a year ago – the rising prices of precious metals on the world’s markets promise bright future to Canada’s mining companies.