Fresnillo reports lower annual gold, silver production

Miner Fresnillo reported a year-on-year fall in gold and silver production on the back of expected lower grades from its operations.

Annual gold production fell 5.1% due to the planned closure of the Noche Buena mine and lower grade output from Fresnillo's San Julián project in Mexico.

Full year silver production of 54.6m ounces (including Silverstream), was down 11.6% year on year as a result of expected lower ore grade at Saucito as well as lower than expected ore grades at Fresnillo and San Julián Veins and DOB.

The company forecast 2020 Silver production of 51m – 56m ounces, including Silverstream. and gold production in the range of 815 to 900 koz.

Quarter-on-quarter production rose as Fresnillo began to see the impact of its performance improvement plan, which included intensive infill drilling to “improve the certainty of the geological model, dilution control and raising development rates”.