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First Majestic Silver (NYSE:AG) -7.6% in Tuesday's trading after reporting Q1 total production fell 32% Y/Y and 22% Q/Q to 5.16M silver equivalent oz.
Q1 production from the company's three producing mines in Mexico - the San Dimas silver-gold mine, the Santa Elena silver-gold mine and the La Encantada silver mine - consisted of 1.97M silver oz, down 22% Y/Y and 24% Q/Q, and 35,936 gold oz, and 41% Y/Y and 23% Q/Q.
While First Majestic (AG) said Q1 results were aligned to its FY 2024 guidance plan, analysts expected full-year output of 2.2M silver oz and 40.4K gold oz, according to FactSet.
During the quarter, First Majestic (AG) said it identified and developed a significant new water source at La Encantada last month and is in the process of increasing water inventory levels and processing rates at the plant; the company expects plant ore throughput rates will return to targeted levels of ~3K metric tons/day by Q3.
During the quarter, La Encantada produced 456,179 silver oz, a 12% Q/Q decline primarily due to a decrease in ore processed and silver recovery.
Q1 silver production at San Dimas fell 23% Q/Q to 1.16M oz and gold output slid 27% to 13.5K oz, primarily due to a decrease in ore processed and silver and gold grades, which were caused by the transition into lower grade areas of the Central and Graben blocks; the company expects to see improvement in grades and throughput during the year.
Santa Elena produced 355,205 oz of silver and 21,713 oz of gold in Q1, which the company said was tracking its full-year guidance plan.