Since 2010, Sierra Metals has managed to continually increase production at its Bolivar and Cusi mines in Mexico and its Yauricocha mine in Peru while increasing reserves. Even better, all three mines are part of huge land packages barely explored. In this interview with The Gold Report, Sierra Metals President and CEO Mark Brennan explains how he has centralized and rationalized company operations, how he is modernizing production and how he intends to grow Sierra internally to become a large-cap producer with a billion-dollar-plus market cap.
The Gold Report: In the last six months Sierra Metals Inc. (SMT:TSX) has replaced its president/CEO, director of corporate development, VP Exploration and COO. Why was this wholesale transformation of management necessary, and what is your mission as the new president/CEO?
Mark Brennan: Sierra was previously a somewhat disjointed company and lacked centralized management. Historically, Sierra had a CFO in Peru and a CEO in West Virginia and Arizona, with corporate development being run out of Vancouver. What I’ve done as the new president/CEO is bring everything together under one roof in Toronto and encourage communication between all of our operations.
We have three producing underground mines: Bolivar and Cusi—which are 100% Sierra-owned—in Chihuahua, Mexico, and Yauricocha in Peru, which is 82% owned by Sierra. In the past, we ran our Mexican and Peruvian operations as entirely distinct entities. Now, with the benefit of a fully integrated corporate structure, I believe we can continually engineer efficiencies and synergies between Mexico and Peru.
TGR: What is your history in the mining business, and what strengths do you bring to Sierra?
MB: Before becoming president/CEO of Sierra in April 2015, I was president/CEO of Largo Resources Ltd. (LGO:TSX.V). Under my leadership, Largo built the Maracas vanadium mine in Brazil, which began production in 2014. My background …read more