TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Precious metals producer Fortuna Silver, which owns and operates the San Jose mine, in Mexico, and the Caylloma mine, in Peru, on Thursday said production for the quarter ended June 30, was in line with its expectations.
Fortuna delivered 1.07-million ounces of silver, 5 183 oz of gold and significant base metals by-products. Silver production was 8% higher year-on-year, compared with the 996 193 oz produced in the comparable year-earlier period, while gold production dropped 11% on the 5 846 oz produced in the second quarter of the previous year.
Fortuna said year-on-year base metals output rose, with lead production up 15% to 4.66-million pounds and zinc production rising 15% to 6.12-million pounds.
Silver output for the first half of the year totalled 2.06-million ounces and gold output totalled 9 675 oz. Silver production was 6% above budget, and the decline in gold production was expected.
The company said it was on schedule to produce 4.5-million ounces of silver and 23 600 oz of gold, or 5.9-million silver-equivalent ounces, in 2013.
The cash cost for mining the San Jose mine of $77.18/t was 1% below guidance of $78/t, while the cash cost for mining the Caylloma mine, at $93.34/t, was 4% below guidance of $97/t, the company said.
"We are pleased with production results for the quarter, which are in line with budget. Our team at Caylloma has done an excellent job in implementing initiatives to improve silver recovery, resulting in 83.34% for the month of June,” president and CEO Jorge Ganoza said.
He added that the company was working on implementing cost and capital reduction measures, the details of which would be published in August.
Fortuna, in June, announced a new production plan for the San Jose mine, which entailed upgrading the current mill expansion programme from a 1 500 t/d operation to a 1 800 t/d operation, at no extra cost.
The company said the expansion was on track to be completed in the third quarter, after which silver production was expected to increase to 500 000 oz/y and gold production to 4 000 oz/y.