News from Hochschild (HOC.L) today is not good for holders of Minera Andes (MAI.to), a stock we held over at The IKN Weekly for a while but dumped it due to underperformance. The HOC.L production figures for 1q10 include the basics for San José, which is 51% owned by HOC.L and 49% owned by MAI.to. Here in chart form are the main numbers:
Throughput was down:
Silver production was way down:
Gold production was also way down:
This MAI.to has been pumped hard since the end of last year by The Zeds over at The Can of Corn as one of their stocks of 2010 or summink like that. Also, for some unknown reason MAI.to got a target upgrade from Zed One (or is that Zed two?) a few days ago. Looks like either some bait'n'switch going on, or just plain ignorance. Neither would surprise me when its the can of corn in question, but I'd bet a loonie on the second option.
UPDATE 1:48pm. MAI.to releases the same numbers, an hour after this post went up. You heard it here first, folks. The MAI NR also includes this sad looking paragraph:
First quarter 2010 first quarter silver and gold production were 20% and 18% lower respectively compared to the fourth quarter of 2009 as a result of lower mine production and lower head grades for both silver and gold as well as lower silver recovery rates in the mill, partially offset by higher gold recovery rates. Mine production has been impacted by delays in underground mine development, which has delayed access to certain higher grade stoping areas. Mill throughput in the first quarter of 2010 was 4% lower than the level of the previous quarter. Year on year, silver and gold production were 37% and 1% lower respectively, mainly due to the delay in mine development.
So, it's a special time for a special message to Zerb and his recent MAI.to dumbass upgrade:
