 Economic geologist Tom Shrake has worked in mineral exploration in Latin America
for the last 23 years. In 1998 Shrake joined the Pacific Rim Mining Corporation,
drawn to the company by its people and the company's environmentally and
socially responsible approach to mining. Having spent the last 12 years as Pacific
Rim's CEO, Shrake is passionate about the company and the need to find and drill
high grade, environmentally clean, gold deposits in a manner that disturbs the
environment as little as possible and provides assistance to the local population.
In 2002, Pacific Rim management
decided to look for epithermal gold
deposits. An epithermal vein system is
formed by geysers making their way to
the earth's surface. "Basically the geyser
solutions move up through cracks in
the rocks and the cracks are filled with
quartz, calcite, gold and silver," explains
Shrake. These systems are difficult to
find but are consistent producers with
no acid potential. This makes them
good, low cost, producers that are
environmentally benign.
 The social responsibility of the
company is borne out in the use of
local labour and in the mining sites
development. As much work as
possible is carried out by hand. "That
way we maximize the number of jobs
that we create," says Shrake. This
method also allows Pacific Rim to
construct access roads and drill sites in
such a way that the sites can be
completely refurbished and reclaimed
when drilling is finished.
The merger with Dayton mining in 2002
gave Pacific Rim the El Dorado gold
deposit in El Salvador. El Dorado has
produced resources totalling 1.4 million
ounces of gold since its acquisition. El
Dorado is currently offline due to a
dispute with the government of El
Salvador, however Shrake is optimistic
about reaching an agreement and the
site will go back into production. In the
meantime El Dorado has served as
laboratory for the company. "We
dissected it geologically to understand
it in every way that we could," explains
Shrake.
 This research has led to the acquisition
of the Remance gold project in Panama.
"We recognize in Remance the same
things we saw at El Dorado,"explains
Shrake. The discovery and acquisition of
the Remance site took almost 4 years as
the company wanted a site of good
quality. "These kinds of opportunities are
extremely hard to find and we're very
excited about Remance," says Shrake.
The company's biggest challenge so far
has been the location of a quality asset
to supplement the projects in El
Salvador. Now the Remance project has
been acquired, the company is ready to
move forward. The possible resolution of
the dispute in El Salvador is a potentially
profitable wildcard for Pacific Rim. As
Shrake says; "Unlock the value with the
drill bit at Remance and find a resolution
to our dispute in El Salvador. When that
happens, we're a multi hundred-million
dollar company.
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