Fresnillo beats gold and silver production guidance, expects growth in 2015

28th Jan 2015 07:19

Mexican precious metals group Fresnillo beat forecasts with its silver and gold production in 2014 and said it expects to grow output this year.In a fourth-quarter trading update, the company said total silver production in the final three months of last year totalled 12.33m ounces (oz), up 15.5% on the year before.This pushed full-year output to 45m oz, up 4.9% on 2013 and ahead of its 43m oz guidance.The company said that higher ore throughput at Saucito and increased production from Silverstream helped to offset lower silver grades at Fresnillo and Ciénega.Gold production in the fourth quarter leaped 77.4% to 173,471 oz, taking full-year output to 595,920 oz. This was down 2.4% on 2013, reflecting the stoppage of operations at Soledad-Dipoles, but slightly ahead of its revised target of 590,000 oz.Looking ahead, the company said that 2015 silver production would be around 45-47m oz, while gold output is predicted to rise to 670,000-685,000 oz.The 2015 exploration budget would be around $170m, down 8% on 2014.Fresnillo said it remains on track to hit its 2018 production targets of 65m oz of silver and 750,000 oz of gold.Chief executive Octavio Alvídrez said: "2014 was of course not without its challenges, in particular at our Fresnillo and Herradura mines, but we begin 2015 confident that we are taking the necessary actions to allow for increased production at the Herradura mine, and at Fresnillo we are expecting to see the benefits of the measures we have implemented in order to control dilution and improve contractor efficiency to deliver more stable production."