Silver Stocks: 5 Biggest Companies in 2024

Market cap: C$9.95 billion; share price: C$27.58

Pan American Silver is among the world’s largest primary silver producers, with silver assets located throughout the Americas and operations in Peru, Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.

According to its Q2 report, released on August 7, overall, the company produced 4.57 million ounces of silver during the period. Its largest silver-producing asset is the La Colorada mine in Mexico, which produced 835,000 ounces of silver during the quarter. Production at the mine saw a 310,000 ounce decline year-over-year due to ventilation issues, but the company said it had completed upgrades and expects a return to normal production in the second half of 2024.

The rest of its production came from the El Peñon gold-silver mine in Chile, which produced 850,000 ounces of silver, Huaron in Peru at 829,000 ounces, San Vicente in Bolivia at 774,000 ounces, Cerro Moro in Argentina at 570,000 ounces and Dolores in Mexico at 440,000 ounces.

In the report, the company noted lower production through H1 2024. Still, it said it was on track to meet the lower end of guidance of 21 million to 23 million ounces of silver in 2024 with production to be more heavily weighted to the fourth quarter than it originally indicated at the start of the year.

Market cap: C$2.25 billion; share price: C$7.59

First Majestic has a portfolio of three silver-producing mines in Mexico: San Dimas in Durango, Santa Elena in Sonora and La Encantada in Coahuila. The first two also produce gold.

In addition to its producing assets, the company announced on March 23 that it had commenced bullion sales from its own minting facility in Nevada, US, named First Mint.

According to the company’s Q2 2024 report, the company produced 2.1 million ounces of silver during the quarter. San Dimas was its largest producer, delivering more than 1.14 million ounces of silver, while La Encantada contributed 585,329 ounces and Santa Elena produced 376,947 ounces.

As for H1, First Majestic has produced 4.1 million ounces of silver, a 21 percent decline in production versus the same period in 2023. First Majestic attributed this to a decline in grades at San Dimas as well as labor inefficiencies at the mine due to ongoing negotiations.

In the report, the company indicates production guidance for 2024 to be 8.9 million to 9.5 million ounces of silver, a slight change from the 8.6 million to 9.6 million ounces at the start of the year.

Market cap: C$1.82 billion; share price: C$17.91

MAG Silver is a silver production company that has a 44 percent stake in the Juanicipio mine in Zacatecas, Mexico. The remaining 56 percent of the operation is owned by Fresnillo (LSE:FRES,OTC Pink:FNLPF).

In addition to Juanicipio, the company also has two exploration projects, Deer Trail and Larder. Deer Trail is a silver, gold, lead, zinc and copper property in Utah, US, that hosts a historic mine, and Larder is a gold project located in Ontario, Canada. The company carried out drilling at both during the second quarter.

In the company’s Q2 2024 management discussion on August 1, MAG Silver reported mining operations at Juanicipio had produced 9.4 million ounces of silver during the first half of the year, with 5 million ounces being produced during the second quarter.

The company also announced Fresnillo had increased full-year guidance for the mine, and it is now expected to produce between 16.3 million and 17.3 million ounces of silver in 2024. The increase is due to improved expected grades of 420 to 460 grams per metric ton (g/t) up from 380 to 420 g/t.

Market cap: C$1.66 billion; share price: C$11.38

SilverCrest Metals is a silver producer that owns the Las Chispas mine located in Sonora, Mexico.

Through the first half of the year, SilverCrest reported in its Q2 2024 financial results that the mine produced 2.87 million ounces of silver, up from the 2.82 million ounces produced during the first six months of 2023. In Q2, silver production totalled 1.46 million ounces.

In total, the company said it had mined 100,019 metric tons of ore from the underground mine in Q2 compared to 74,400 MT in Q2 2023, and that mining and development were above the expected rates from its 2023 technical report. It attributed these higher levels to focusing on ramp-up efforts and deploying two mining contractors to work simultaneously.

SilverCrest sold 5.26 million silver equivalent ounces in H1. The company indicated that due to the strong results in the first half of the year, it had upgraded its guidance to 10 million to 10.3 million silver equivalent ounces sold from 9.8 million to 10.2 million.

Market cap: C$1.14 billion; share price: C$16.60

Gatos Silver is a silver-focused production and exploration company. Its flagship asset is the Cerro Los Gatos mine and district, located south of Chihuahua City, Mexico. Gatos owns 70 percent of the asset, which is a joint venture with Dowa Metals and Mining. The site consists of 14 predominantly silver, lead and zinc mineralization zones.

In the company’s Q2 2024 financial results released on August 6, it reported that it had produced 4.67 million ounces of silver through the first half of the year representing an increase over the 4.43 million ounces produced through the first six months of 2023. In Q2, its production totaled 2.3 million ounces of silver and 3.88 million silver equivalent ounces.

The company indicated that it remains on track to achieve its 2024 guidance of 8.4 million to 9.2 million ounces of silver with all-in sustaining costs expected to be in the lower half of its original range of US$9.50 to US$11.50 per ounce of payable silver.