Note 17. Sale of the Velardea Mill	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2011
Property, Plant and Equipment, Schedule of Significant Acquisitions and Disposals [Table Text Block]	Note 17: Sale of the Velardeña Mill On March 9, 2009, we completed the sale of our processing facility located in Velardeña, Mexico to ECU Silver Mining Inc. (“ECU”) for $8 million in cash and 750,000 shares of ECU common stock, valued at $0.3 million at the time of the transaction. Ore produced from the San Sebastian and Don Sergio mines at our San Sebastian unit was processed at the Velardeña mill. Processing of economic ore was completed during the fourth quarter of 2005, and the mill was placed on care and maintenance at that time. The mill had a book value of approximately $3 million at the time of the sale. We recognized a pre-tax gain of approximately $6.2 million during the first quarter of 2009 as a result of the sale. The gain includes $1.0 million related to the elimination of the asset retirement obligation associated with the mill.

Note 17. Sale of the Velardea Mill

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Property, Plant and Equipment, Schedule of Significant Acquisitions and Disposals [Table Text Block]

Note 17: Sale of the Velardeña Mill

On March 9, 2009, we completed the sale of our processing facility located in Velardeña, Mexico to ECU Silver Mining Inc. (“ECU”) for $8 million in cash and 750,000 shares of ECU common stock, valued at $0.3 million at the time of the transaction. Ore produced from the San Sebastian and Don Sergio mines at our San Sebastian unit was processed at the Velardeña mill. Processing of economic ore was completed during the fourth quarter of 2005, and the mill was placed on care and maintenance at that time. The mill had a book value of approximately $3 million at the time of the sale. We recognized a pre-tax gain of approximately $6.2 million during the first quarter of 2009 as a result of the sale. The gain includes $1.0 million related to the elimination of the asset retirement obligation associated with the mill.