Mexican metal miner Fresnillo has balanced the scales on its first quarter production report with its silver haul coming in higher year-on-year but gold ticking lower.
The London-listed entity said today that 13.5m ounces (moz) of silver were extracted through the first three months of 2024, up 2.7 per cent on the same quarter last year, primarily down to the increase in production from its Juanicipio site.
The figure represented a 4.6 per cent decrease versus the final quarter of last year, however, which benefited from strong processing volumes at the San Julian site.
Gold production took a significant hit, with year-on-year first quarter production down 18.6 per cent to 140.8 thousand ounces (koz) thanks to a mine closure at Noche Buena and lower ore processing at Herradura.
Production of by-products was up, with 11.6 per cent more lead extracted through the period than in the first quarter of 2023 and 8.5 per cent more zinc.
The company also highlighted a fatality that occurred at the Fresnillo mine in January and said a “thorough investigation had been carried out with the authorities to identify the root cause and implement corrective actions”.
Looking ahead, the company said it expected silver production to be in the range of 55-62 moz, while gold output is expected to come in at around 580-630 koz.
The company’s chief executive officer, Octavio Alvidrez, said the start of the year fell “in line with our expectations”.
“We continue to prioritise safety across all our operations in 2024, while also focusing on reducing costs, improving efficiencies at all mine sites, and with our newest Juanicipio mine now fully ramped up, on the advancement of our growth pipeline and our guidance for the full year is unchanged,” he added.
Gold has been outperforming all expectations throughout the year so far, with prices repeatedly breaking all-time high marks, driven by continued central bank buying, strong Chinese demand and continued geopolitical tensions.