Hochschild on track to hit full year production target

Hochschild Mining, a gold and silver miner, has released a solid third quarter update, saying it is on track to achieve its full year production target of 20m ounces of silver.

Ignacio Bustamante, Chief Executive Officer, said: "Hochschild remains firmly on track to achieve its annual production target of 20.0m attributable silver equivalent ounces after another solid operational performance in the third quarter."

The South America-focused miner also reported strong results from its brownfield exploration programme, which is focused not only on resource additions but also on improving the grade quality of these resources in the long term.

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These included the discovery of a new vein at San Jose, the discovery of a new vein and a significant vein extension at Arcata and continued good results from the Pallancata's Huararani and Luisa veins.

Progress continues on its Crespo and particularly its Inmaculada prospects. When fully developed, both mines should increase production by 50%. However, there has been no update as to when it is likely to win construction permits for these new Peruvian mines.

On August 22nd it indicated that it might face delays in winning construction permits for these mines due to the increased complexity of the submission process.

The company said that its financial position remains strong, with total cash of $476.7m and minority investments valued at $351.4m at the end of September.

CM