Precious metals miner Hochschild Mining in on track to meet its production guidance of 457 000 gold-equivalent ounces (GEOs) in 2019, but its production will be lower next year, owing to permitting delays at Pallancata, Peru.

The London-listed miner expects its production for 2020 to be 432 000 GEOs, or 35-million silver-equivalent ounces, comprising 294 000 oz of gold and 18.1-million ounces of silver, at an all-in sustaining cost on a gold-equivalent basis of between $1 105/oz and $1 045/oz.

The Inmaculada mine, in Peru, is expected to deliver record production of 257 000 GEOs, comprising 181 400 oz of gold and 6.1-million ounces of silver. The 45%-owned San Jose mine, in Argentina, is forecast to deliver solid production of 14-million ounces of silver equivalent production, comprising 93 300 oz of gold and 6.5-million ounces of silver.

Pallancata will produce seven-million silver-equivalent ounces and Hochschild explained that its projects had been lowered to allow further time for brownfield exploration.

“Following permitting delays at Pallancata, we have decided to give our brownfield exploration team more time to deliver additional resources and have therefore reduced the operation's expected production to 7-million silver-equivalent ounces. However, we remain excited by the geological potential surrounding all our operations,” said CEO Ignacio Bustamante.

Costs are expected to rise moderately owing to a one-off $22-million project to increase tailings capacity at Inmaculada and the reduced production at Pallancata.

Hochschild is forecasting overall capital expenditure of $115-million to $130-million for the year.

The brownfield exploration budget for 2020 is about $36-million with the greenfield and advanced project budget set at $8-million and $7-million for the recently-acquired BioLantanidos deposit in Chile.