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First Majestic Silver Announces 2020 Production and Cost Guidance
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Majestic Silver Corp. ("First Majestic" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the Compan
About this update from First Majestic Silver Corp.
[{"type":"text","content":" VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Majestic Silver Corp. (\"First Majestic\" or the \"Company\") is pleased to announce the Company’s 2020 production and cost guidance including capital investments and future growth initiatives. All amounts are in U.S. dollars unless stated otherwise. “For 2020, our focus remains on adopting new innovation projects to modernize our processing plants to achieve higher recoveries, improve efficiencies and reduce operating costs,” said Keith Neumeyer, President & CEO. “We have witnessed significant benefits from high-intensity grinding at our Santa Elena operation in 2019 and we plan to install the same technology at San Dimas in 2020. In addition, we continue to advance underground development activities at the Ermitaño project near Santa Elena to prepare the mine for initial production in early 2021. Our increased investments in underground development and innovation in 2020 is expected to result in significant production growth in 2021 and beyond.” The Company expects 2020 silver production to range between 11.8 to 13.2 million ounces with total production (including gold by-products) between 21.5 to 24.0 million silver equivalent ounces. The Company’s guidance only assumes production coming from its three largest mines: the San Dimas, Santa Elena and La Encantada mines. The San Martin and La Parrilla mines are expected to remain suspended throughout 2020 and the Del Toro mine is being wound down with no production in 2020. By suspending the Company’s highest cost lead and zinc mines, management is now able to focus all of its efforts on cost reduction and innovation at its most profitable silver and gold mines. 2020 Production and Cost Guidance Highlights The Company plans to increase production at San Dimas by restarting mining operations at the past-producing Tayoltita mine by the end of the first quarter and expects to ramp up production to 300 tpd by the end of 2020. The Tayoltita mine was the original mining area at San Dimas and known to contain higher silver grades. In addition, the Company plans to install a new 3,000 tpd high-intensity grinding (“HIG”) mill circuit and an autogenous (“AG”) grinding mill in the second half of 2020 to further improve recoveries and reduce operating costs. Silver production at La Encant...