Commissioning of the new Juancipio mine has encountered a slight delay, Mexican precious metals miner Fresnillo reported on Wednesday, explaining that the tie-in of the pyrites plant to the national grid had been extended by a few weeks.

State-owned electricity regulator CFE has requested additional testing to verify compatibility between the new and updated substation equipment installed by Juancipio and existing older CFE infrastructure before the final tie-in to the electrical grid.

CEO Octavio Alvidrez said that the additional testing was on track and that the final tie-in should be achieved by the end of the month, whereafter commissioning and ramp-up would start.

At full capacity, the new mine would produce nearly 12-million ounces a year of silver, making a considerable contribution to the company’s overall silver production, he said.

Fresnillo now expects to reach 60% capacity by the end of the year, which is lower than the earlier guidance, given the unexpected delay to final tie-in. However, expectations for Juancipio are unchanged.

Meanwhile, Alvidrez reported a solid third quarter of production, with continued improvement volumes at Fresnillo and Saucito.

Quarterly attributable silver production of 13.6-million ounces, including Silverstream, decreased 5.4% compared with the second quarter, but was 7.4% higher than in the third quarter, owing to the higher contribution from Juanicipio, higher ore processed and ore grade at Fresnillo and higher ore grade at Saucito. This was partly offset by the expected lower ore grade and decreased volume of ore processed at San Julián disseminated orebody.

Quarterly attributable gold production of 159 200 oz remained flat quarter-on-quarter, and increased by 7.7% year-on-year.

Fresnillo is on track to meet its 2022 full-year guidance of 50.5-million to 56.5-million ounces of attributable silver and 600 000 oz to 650 000 oz of attributable gold production.