Mexico silver production falls as gold and copper inch up

Mexico's silver output fell 2.8% year-on-year in February to 338,274kg (10.9Moz), while gold production grew 3.2% to 7,150kg, according to statistics agency Inegi.

Compared to January, silver production was down 5.6% and gold was 4.8% lower, while in the first two months silver output rose just 0.2% and gold 3.9%.

Copper production was up 2.3% year-on-year in February to 41,448t, and 1.1% compared to January’s 40,993t. In the first two months production rose 3%.

The country's overall mining and metallurgical production – including extraction, smelting and refining – grew 1.3% annually in February, reflecting the stagnation that the sector has been experiencing since 2022.

A week earlier, Inegi revealed that metal and non-metallic mining in Mexico expanded 1% year-on-year in February, below the 1.2% in the first month of the year, according to its industrial activity report.

Luis Humberto Vázquez, president of the association of mining engineers, metallurgists and geologists (AIMMGM), attributed the continued stagnation of mining production to the lack of new projects due to the freeze on granting mining concessions under the current government.

“All our projects are getting old. We’re all ... trying to make an effort to sustain production, but that is not infinite and, with each passing year, it will be more difficult for us to maintain those levels if we do not have new exploration,” Vázquez said in an interview with BNamericas.

He added that inflation in the sector exceeds the overall rate, being between 12% and 14% last year, which is reflected in a "very strong" increase in costs that affects mining operations and gets worse as grades fall.

Sonora is the largest gold and copper producing state in Mexico, while Zacatecas leads the production of silver, lead and zinc, according to Inegi.