2012 Gold, Silver Targets Achievable – Fresnillo PLC

Fresnillo PLC, a Mexican precious metals miner, on Wednesday announced it remained confident of achieving the gold and silver production targets it has set for 2012, after second quarter output showed favourable results.

Its gold production for the quarter in review escalated 15.4 per cent over a year ago to 127,003 ounces, hitting a record level for the period, Fresnillo PLC said. The company owed the sterling performance from the new Noche Buena gold mine and continued solid performance at Cienega and higher ore grade at its Saucito mines.

With this, the miner is on track to meet a target annual output of 460,000 ounces of gold in 2012.

Meanwhile, its silver output, although down from a year ago, registered an uptick from a month before.

Silver production by the world's largest primary silver producer dropped 12.6 per cent in the three months to June 30, compared from a year ago. The company attributed the low output to the falling grades at its flagship Fresnillo mine.

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Month-on-month, the production in the three months to June 30 was up 4.9 per cent over the first quarter.

"We were pleased with our performance in the second quarter of the year with record gold production and silver production up on the previous quarter as we started to see the results of our successful ramp up at Saucito," Jaime Lomelin, Fresnillo PLC CEO, said in a statement.

"We will continue focusing our efforts towards stabilising production at our Fresnillo mine, delivering growth through new operations and discovering new deposits of precious metals," he added.

The London-listed miner plans to produce 41 million ounces of silver and 460,000 ounces of gold in 2012.