Canadian mining company Sierra Metals has placed its Cusi underground silver mine in Chihuahua, Mexico, under care and maintenance.

The move comes as the company classified the mine as non-core. It also excluded the mine’s results in its consolidated results and plans to provide no production or cost guidance for this year.

Furthermore, Sierra Metals has initiated a process to sell the mine and has selected SCP Resource Finance to act as financial adviser for the sale process.

Sierra Metals CEO Ernesto Balarezo Valdez said: “Earlier this year, the company deemed the Cusi silver mine a non-core asset and given current market conditions has made the difficult decision to put the mine on care and maintenance.

“In efforts to crystalise value for shareholders, we have a process under way to sell Cusi. Sierra is transitioning to become a copper-focused mining company, and the planned divestiture of Cusi will allow us to focus on our two key mines, Yauricocha in Peru and Bolivar in Mexico, where we have significant potential to continue growing our copper production."

The company said there is no certainty that the process will result in the mine sale.

Located 135km from Chihuahua City, the 11,665-hectare Cusi property comprises 73 concessions.

The mine has the capacity to produce 1,200 tonnes per day. The project’s processing facilities comprise two interconnected process plants containing conventional ball mill and flotation plants fed from a crushing circuit.

The flotation circuit is equipped to produce silver, lead and zinc concentrates.

In April 2021, Sierra Metals announced a $28m (C$37.82m) investment to build a magnetite processing plant at its Bolivar Mine in Chihuahua, Mexico.