30th May 2018 08:18
LONDON (Alliance News) - Mexican miner Fresnillo PLC said Wednesday it remains on track to meet its 2018 production guidance.
Speaking to the company's annual general meeting Wednesday, Chairman Alberto Bailleres said Fresnillo has "started the year well". He said the company has had a "strong" operating performance in the first quarter of 2018.
Fresnillo's 2018 gold output guidance is unchanged at between 870,000 and 900,000 ounces, and silver is unchanged at between 67.0 million and 70.0 million ounces. The company expects "further growth and returns over the longer term".
Bailleres said that despite "changing market environments and pressures", Fresnillo is delivering on its long-term commitments. Bailleres noted that, over the past decade, the FTSE 100-listed miner has paid USD2.5 billion in dividends.
This was in addition to investing over USD6 billion to expand operations and more than doubled its silver equivalent resources.
Bailleres re-iterated his regret over the fatal accident reported in early 2017 by the company. He said Fresnillo took "decisive" steps to "re-engage all our contactors in our health and safety culture and we will continue to roll this out throughout 2018".
Bailleres said: "At the time of the initial public offering, we set ourselves two demanding targets for our first decade of operations. Our gold production target of 750 thousand ounces was reached in 2015, three years ahead of plan, while our 65 million ounces objective for silver is on track to be achieved in 2018."
Shares in Fresnillo were up 0.7% early Wednesday at 1,347.50 pence each.
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