First Majestic Silver reduces its silver production by 27% in 1Q21

First Majestic Silver Corp. reported that it recorded a 27% year-on-year decline in its silver equivalent production in the first quarter of 2021.

Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, the company announced that total production in the first quarter of the year from its three production operations in Mexico, the San Dimas gold/silver mine, the Santa Elena silver / gold mine and the La Encantada silver, reached 4.5 million silver equivalent ounces.

The amount consists of 2.9 million ounces of silver and 23,873 ounces of gold.

First Majestic is a publicly traded mining company focused on silver production in Mexico and is aggressively pursuing the development of its existing mineral property assets.

For all of 2021, First Majestic projects that production from these three mines will be between 12.5 and 13.9 million ounces of silver or between 20.6 and 22.9 million ounces of silver equivalent.

In terms of exploration, the company completed a total of 39,552 meters of drilling, or approximately 21% of the 2021 exploration budget, at all the company’s mines and projects during the quarter.

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 19 exploration drill rigs were active consisting of 10 rigs at San Dimas, seven rigs at Santa Elena, and two rigs at La Encantada.

First Majestic

The installation of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in Santa Elena was successfully completed in all commissioning activities during the quarter.

At the end of the quarter, the LNG power plant was supplying approximately 85% of the energy requirements for the Santa Elena operation.

Furthermore, underground development activities at the Ermitaño project, near Santa Elena, advanced another 1,453 meters during the quarter.

First Majestic plans to begin test pit mining in June and expects to extract between 50,000 and 60,000 tonnes of material over the next six months.

On the surface, initial construction activities began on the access road that will connect the Santa Elena processing plant with the Ermitaño portal area.

Finally, underground mineral production and rates of return from the Santa Elena plant increased during the quarter and in March exceeded budgeted levels for the first time in more than a year.

Production was achieved following multiple improvement initiatives enacted at the mine over the past nine months.

In March, underground mining produced 55,266 tons of ore, or approximately 1,783 tons per day, representing 41% of Santa Elena’s total underground production for the entire quarter.