Fresnillo cuts silver production target

12th Oct 2011 07:37

An attempt to reinforce mine safety meant that miner Fresnillo saw silver production fall by 5.8% in the three months to the end of September.As such, the firm lowered its 2011 silver production guidance from 44m ounces to 41m ounces.Quarterly attributable silver production fell from 10.687m Oz to 10.067m Oz after two fatalities of contractors in July forced the group to tighten its safety conditions, leading to a slowdown in production at the Fresnillo mine."The group's sustainable growth strategy begins with the wellbeing of our stakeholders and primarily our employees and contractors. That is the reason why, in the third quarter, we sought to reinforce safety conditions at all our operating units and projects.However, the firm asserted that these actions only temporarily slowed down production and its resource fundamentals remains strong.Nevertheless, year-to-date and quarterly attributable gold production rose to a record levels of 326,245 and 119,789 ounces, respectively, as the firm benefited from increased capacity and better recovery rates at Soledad-Dipolos, as well as higher volumes of ore processed at Herradura and Saucito.As such, Fresnillo now expects attributable gold production to reach 430 thousand ounces, up from its previous target of 400 thousand ounces.BC