Pan American Silver Bars

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Pan American Silver is a Canadian silver mining company and now a world leader in silver production, being the second largest primary silver mining company in the world. Pan American Silver operates eight mines in South America - in Bolivia, Argentina, Peru and Mexico. [1]

Pan American Silver Bars are minted in the USA for Pan American Silver Corp, a leading silver producer, by the Northwest Terrirotial Mint. Northwest Territorial Mint is the largest private mint in the USA. [2]

Pan American Silver was formed in 1994 from the Pan American Minerals Corp., and commenced the acquisition of silver projects with proven resources. Since then, silver production has grown to several million ounces per year: In 2010, Pan American's production was 24.3 million ounces. [3]

Pan American trades on several stock exchanges - its symbol is PAAS. [4]

Pan American Silver Bar Sizes

Pan American silver bars are manufactured in eight sizes:

5 gram (30.3 x 18.3 x 1.12 mm)
10 gram (30.3 x 18.3 x 2.03 mm)
1 /4 Troy Ounce (30.3 x 18.3 x 1.57 mm)
1 /2 Troy Ounce (40.4 x 24.3 x 1.78 mm)
1 Troy Ounce (50 x 29 x 2.10 mm)
5 Troy Ounce (59.3 x 34.798 x 7.30 mm)
10 Troy Ounce (88.9 x 44.45 x 7.58 mm)
100 Troy Ounce (150 x 76 x 26.9 mm)

The bars are all minted at .999 purity and feature the same "silver hammer" logo, as seen in the image. [5]

Pan American also has "silver rounds" in one and half ounce sizes, and has even produced as "silver bar necklace" - featuring a 1 /4 ounce bar set into a pendant and suspended from a silver chain.

Silver Production

Pan American Silver bullion is currently produced from silver that is mined at the La Colorada mine in Mexico. La Colorada mine, acquired by Pan American in 1998, is 99 kilometers south of the city of Durango in the state of Zacatecas. [6]

The area in which La Colorada mine is found has been a center of mining ever since the 16th century; however silver production was sporadic for a long time and did not become continuous until the 19th century. Mining has been ongoing since that time, with the exception of the time of the War of Independence, which brought a halt to mining between 19190 and 1920. La Colorada mine is in an area which has been nicknamed the "Faja de Plata" - the "silver belt" - a silver deposit that stretches some 800km along the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range of the west coast of Mexico. [6]

La Colorada mine is a polymetallic mine and also produces zinc, lead and a few thousand ounces of gold. [6]

Availability

As Pan American silver bars are in current production, availability is good and the bars can readily be seen for sale online from bullion dealers and on Ebay.

Silver bullion has great appeal to investors who prefer to take direct possession of their assets. One of the potential advantages of this, in addition to being able to see the actual, tangible asset, is that silver is in general considered a liquid commodity - easy to exchange for its cash equivalent.

Pan American Silver Bars - References:

[1] http://www.panamericansilver.com/
[2] http://bullion.nwtmint.com/silver_panam.php
[3] http://www.panamericansilver.com/company/history/
[4] http://www.silverpa.com/about_pas.html
[5] http://bullion.nwtmint.com/documents/PanAmSilver.pdf
[6] http://www.panamericansilver.com/operations/mexico/la-colorada/

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