Record gold and silver hauls at Fresnillo

14th Jul 2011 10:06

Mexican precious metals miner, Fresnillo, has announced record production of both gold and silver in the second quarter of 2011.However, the results were blighted by the deaths of several workers at its operations during the period, which the company called 'deeply concerning'.Quarterly attributable silver production achieved record levels due to the successful start-up of commercial production at the company's Saucito mine, the firm said.Total silver production was up 8.8% in the three months to the end of June, compared with the same period last year.Quarterly attributable gold production also reached record levels, up 21% on the year before.The firm said this was a result of the start-up at Saucito, the expanded capacity and improved recovery at its Soledad-Dipolos mine and the higher volumes of ore deposited at Herradura. Chief executive, Jaime Lomelín, said Fresnillo had focused on operational discipline and cost reduction initiatives, and its exploration programme remained on track with encouraging results."Construction of the Noche Buena gold mine is advancing according to schedule and is expected to begin production in 2012," he said. "We believe that all these actions will help us to achieve our production targets for 2011 and reinforce our growth strategy."Fresnillo said that during the period it had suffered two fatalities of staff as well as five contractors.The company said it was 'deeply concerned' with this performance and subsequent investigations had shown five of the incidents were caused by violations of safety procedures, and one was as a result of unsafe equipment."We have engaged with the contractors to ensure better and more frequent training, and have instructed them to employ a safety supervisor at each site that reports into the Fresnillo safety supervisor," the firm said.