Fortuna Silver Mines Confirms Ambitious Production Guidance

Fortuna Silver Mines reported that as the company continues to deliver strong quarterly production results, it is on track to achieve its ambitious annual production guidance in 2022. In addition, the company said that the San José mine will be the main in meeting its silver production forecast.

Fortuna Silver announced it expects to reach an annual silver production between 6.2Moz and 6.9Moz and a gold production between 244,000oz and 280,000oz. Moreover, the company anticipates from 369,000 to 420,000oz of gold equivalent in its lead and zinc byproducts. Throughout 3Q22, the company has produced 5,160,529oz of silver and 195,315oz of gold. Fortuna Silver said that as its projects continue to improve production levels each quarter, there is no obstacle to meeting the annual projections.

In 3Q22, Fortuna reported that its Latin American assets had a solid quarter of production. Overall, consolidated gold production for 3Q22 was 66,344oz, showing a 6.9 percent increase compared to the same period in 2021. Meanwhile, silver production totaled 1,837,506oz, an increase of 7.3 percent year-over-year. The increase in silver production was largely due to the higher tonnage achieved at the San José Mine.

In 3Q22, the San José mine produced 1.55Moz of silver and 9,091oz of gold, which are 7.6 percent and 2 percent higher than 3Q21 production, respectively. In addition, the company reported that in the first nine months of the year, production at the San José mine totaled 4.29Moz of gold and 25,625Moz of silver. The company said that since the 2022 production forecast for San José is between 5.2Moz and 5.8Moz of silver and from 32,000oz to 36,000oz of gold, current results highlight this will be easy to achieve.

Fortuna Silver Mines is a Canadian gold and silver producer. It is one of the most important silver producers in Mexico. Since Minera Cuzcatlán, a subsidiary of Fortuna Silver, started operations in Oaxaca 11 years ago, it has invested US$400 million in the state. Luis Camargo, Country Head, Minera Cuzcatlán, mentioned that the investment has mostly been allocated to the operation of the San José mine and generated 1,200 direct jobs, of which more than 70 percent of the workers are inhabitants of the San José del Progreso municipality. “More than 5,000 indirect jobs were created. Additionally, 600 suppliers around the country have benefitted from our work, of which 20 percent are in the state of Oaxaca.”