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FORTUNA SILVER MINES INC. | 2014 ANNUAL REPORT
Caylloma Mine, Peru
Offering scholarships to help students
start a career
Even for top students, the fragile social and
economic conditions in the District of Caylloma limit
opportunities for those seeking undergraduate or
technical education. To help outstanding students
further their schooling, we established a five-year
fellowship program in an agreement with the
Municipality of Caylloma and government educational
institutions.
The program started in 2012 and has an annual
budget of $40,000 for scholarships to help pay for
food, housing and local transportation. Scholarships
were awarded to 14 students in 2014 and to seven
more at the beginning of 2015.
The first group of students graduated in 2014 from
programs in accounting, agricultural and livestock
farming, and metallurgy. Two of the graduates are
now employed by our company as interns, completing
training requirements in their fields of study. Yesenia
Choquehuanca, who studied agriculture and livestock
farming, is monitoring farming activities near the
Caylloma Mine and providing technical assistance in
raising alpacas and llamas, as well as in commercial
trout farming operations (see story below).
Luzmila Ceferina Llacho Checco, a metallurgy graduate,
is employed in our metallurgical lab, monitoring
various milling processes and conducting tests.
Providing technical training for
high school graduates
To further support advanced education, we approved
funding in 2013 for the Productive and Technical
Education Center of Caylloma. The center was
established under an agreement with the Regional
Education Management of Arequipa, the Municipality
of Caylloma and Virgen del Chapi Association, a non-
profit fundraising organization formed by Fortuna.
The association is funding approximately $82,000 in
operating costs for two years.
The center opened in 2014, offering training in
metalwork and shoemaking. Sixteen students have
since completed their studies: nine in metalwork and
seven in shoemaking. The center expects to enroll at
least 30 students in 2015 and to expand its training
courses.
Supporting a local trout farming cooperative
We have supported the start-up of a commercial
trout farm in the Carhualaca Lagoon located near
our Caylloma Mine by contributing to start-up costs
and lending our operational expertise since 2012.
Together with Sierra Exportadora, a government
agency responsible for developing sustainable
economic activities in the Andes of Peru, we have
held workshops to help achieve commercial
production and to comply with local and national
standards. The cooperative formed to operate the
fish farm started with 40,000 fingerlings in fall
2012 and harvested 2,000 kilos of rainbow trout
in mid-2013.
Yessenia Choquehuanca, Community
Relations intern at the Caylloma Mine, Peru
Fisherman at the Carhualaca Lagoon,
near the Caylloma Mine, Peru
