Silver Standard Resources Inc.

The king of silver ounces in the ground going into production at Pirquitas in Argentina and Pitarillas in Mexico.

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Silver Standard has engaged in a long-standing practice of buying cheap silver ounces in the ground in order to create leverage to higher silver prices. Now that higher silver prices have arrived and are seemingly here to stay, Silver Standard is putting projects into production in sequential order with the goal of becoming a major silver mining company with more than 20 million ounces of annual production. The first mine to be placed into production is Pirquitas, a silver-tin mine located in Argentina that Silver Standard acquired for 2 million shares from the bankrupt Sunshine Mining Company in 2002.
[Jan 18, 2010]

Silver Standard is no longer a call option on higher silver prices (that distinction was actually taken over by Silver Wheaton several years ago), it is a silver developer with several world-class projects including Pirquitas and Pitarrillas along with a massive resources base such as the Snowfield gold project in British Columbia. While some of Silver Standard's resources will probably not become mines without still much higher metal prices, Silver Standard's main projects still give the company a decent valuation in our proprietary model. The company is currently in a tough phase of the exploration-development-mining cycle but it might deserve a look based on announcement of positive news catalysts including trouble-free mine rampup at Pirquitas, development progress at Pitarrillas and the entry of a major gold producer into the Snowfield area where Silver Standard and Seabridge have defined close to 100 million ounces in a series of gold-copper porphyries.
[Jan 18, 2010]