Coeur d’Alene Mines has received five major safety awards from the International Society of Mine Safety Professionals (ISMSP) for its safe operations, as well as for safe worker activities related to its new San Bartolome silver mine in Bolivia and the development of the Kensington gold mine in Alaska. The awards were presented last week at the ISMSP Conference in recognition of the safety milestones set during the construction of San Bartolome, ongoing worker safety at Kensington, the safe standards set by the Couer exploration group in Chile, and for overall corporate safety standards. San Bartolome is the largest primary silver mine in the world, currently in the last stages of operations startup, and included a mostly-Bolivian workforce of 2,200 during construction.“Worker safety is a hallmark at Coeur, and a foundation upon which we build and operate all our mines and development properties around the world,” said Dennis E. Wheeler, Chairman, President and CEO of Coeur. “Along with environmental stewardship, the message at Coeur has always been to operate at the highest levels of worker safety, and it is gratifying to gain recognition of this from a prestigious industry group such as ISMSP.”

The individual awards include:

• Safety Award and Safety Recognition Award for Internal Achievement to Coeur’s wholly owned subsidiary Empresa Minera Manquiri’s San Bartolome Project for surpassing 3 million man hours without a lost time accident during 2007, and providing a safe, productive work environment for employees. San Bartolome has since surpassed 5 million man hours without a lost time accident
• Safety Award for dedication to safe, quality production presented to Coeur d’Alene Mines for surpassing 2.1 million man hours without a lost time accident in the fourth quarter of 2007. This includes all Coeur employees and contractors
• Safety Recognition Award for Internal Achievement presented to the Coeur South American Exploration Group in Santiago, Chile, for working one year and 109,866 man hours without a lost time accident in 2007
• Safety Recognition Award for Internal Achievement presented to Coeur Alaska’s Kensington Mine Jualin Construction Group for surpassing one year and 367,149 hours without a lost time accident during 2007.

The International Society of Mine Safety Professionals is an organisation dedicated to promoting the development of health and safety professionals throughout the international mining community. The achievements in safety are awarded at the ISMSP annual professional conference.