Hochschild Mining says on track to hit production targets after strong Q1

South America-focused Hochschild Mining said it was on track to meet production targets as second-quarter output rose on the back of strong performance from its Inmaculada mine and increases at the Pallancata and San Jose operations.

The company on Wednesday said second-quarter attributable production was 89,381 gold equivalent ounces or 7.7m silver equivalent ounces, compared with 32,710 ounces and 2.8m, respectively.

In the first half of 2021 as a whole, Hochschild produced 175,119 gold equivalent ounces or 15.1m silver equivalent ounces with production increasing quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.

Hochschild said it was on track to meet its 2021 production target of between 360,000 - 372,000 gold equivalent ounces or between 31 – 32m silver equivalent ounces.

Chief executive Ignacio Bustamante said drill results have also continued to be encouraging at Inmaculada with 29m silver equivalent ounces of high grade inferred resources already added in the first half.

"We have also seen further positive results from the Snip project in Canada. Finally, today we have also announced that we will be holding a capital markets presentation in September which will cover our exciting rare earths project in Chile," he said.