LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Precious metals miner Fresnillo has reiterated its full-year production guidance after trading in line with expectations in the third quarter, but said gold output was trending towards the upper end of its target range.
As expected, silver production of 11.7m ounces fell by 6.6% quarter-on-quarter and 19.1% year-on-year due to the cessation of mining activities at San Julián, which accounted for a fifth of total silver output in 2024, as well as lower ore grades.

The quarterly decline was driven by lower ore volumes processed at both the Ciénega and Saucito projects, among other reasons.

As a result, year-to-date silver production is down 14.2% over the same period of 2024 at 36.6m ounces, with the company on track to hit the 47.5m-54.5m ounce full-year target.

Gold production of 151,300 ounces was down 4.1% over the quarter and 3.5% lower compared with last year, with lower ore grades cited at Herradura and San Julián Veins. However, year-to-date gold production is still up 8.8% over last year at 465,100 ounces, with full-year output expected to come in at the top end of the 550k-590k ounce range.

For Fresnillo's by-products, lead production was 1.4% higher over the quarter, while zine production was down 12.9%.

"Production performance is in line with our expectations, and we are on track to meet our full year guidance, with gold trending towards the upper end of the range," said chief executive Octavio Alvídrez.

"We remain focused on achieving our priorities in the last quarter of the year. The safety of our people is key, while our continued focus on running our operations as efficiently as possible will enable us to further capitalise on the consistently strong precious metals prices."

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