Dubai Chronicle’s team conducted a research to determine the top silver mining companies. The provided data gives accurate information about the 2011 output of the largest silver producers.
- Read more: Top 10 Gold Mining Companies
Here are the Top 10 Silver Mining Companies.
1. KGHM Polska Miedz
The company is headquartered in Poland and in 2011 it reported a total production of 40.5 million ounces of silver. KGHM is a major copper producer and in same year it became top silver producer climbing two places from 2010 list. The company owns three mines in Poland. The Lubin mine gives about 65 grams of silver per ton, which is a very high content.
2. BHP Billiton
Back in 2010 this company was the largest silver producer in the world. Still it is the biggest diversified resource company worldwide. The operating Cannington mine in Australia is now the world’s primary silver mine, even though BHP declined one place in the list. In 2010 Cannington mine produced 32.17 million ounces of silver, despite the lower supply due to lower ore quality. Basically it is one of the 2 silver mines with output crossing the 14 million ounces threshold.
3. Fresnillo
Fresnillo went a place down to the third place with annual silver production of 38 million ounces. Though, Fresnillo is sustaining its highest-ranking as primary silver miner. The company owns mine in Mexico which was the second-largest primary silver mine in 2011. The mine faced a decline in the output, which caused the drop down in the list. With a yearly production of 30.30 million ounces the Mexican Fresnillo is the second mine which crossed the threshold of 14 million ounces of silver.
4. Goldcorp
Gold is the major business asset of Goldcorp, even though the corporation climbed two places in the top list with 28.8 million ounces of produced silver. The higher rank of Goldcorp is supported by output rebound of gold, silver, lead, and zinc from its Penasquito mine in Mexico.
5. Pan American Silver
The fifth place goes to Pan American Silver with total ouput of 21.9 million ounces. In 2010 top list Pan American Silver was ranked fourth with output of 24.3 million ounces of white metal. Despite the decline the company is still the second most productive silver miner in the world. It operates seven mines on the territory of Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico and Peru. Pan American completed the acquisition of Minefinders in March 2012. This put the Mexican Dolores mine into its assets portfolio.
6. Volcan Compania Minera
This is a polymetallic producing company with silver output of 21.1 million ounces. Volcan operates mostly in Peru. The company’s keeps position on the top miner’s list. Its overall annual production includes supply from minority subsidiaries. There are not enough data reports from Volcan and its hard to make future estimations.
7. Polymetal International
Polymetal is a precious metals mining company with 19.9 million ounces of silver production from Russian mines. The silver mining company climbed one position in 2011 rank. Polymetal classifies its output assets as hubs or stand-alone mines. The company digs ore from mines in Dukat and Goltsovoye. The ore is processed in Omsukchan concentrator. According to the Silver Institute, Dukat mine is the third largest silver mine in the world.
8. Coeur d’Alene Mines
This company is a major silver producer, which rise up from ninth place is due to the rising production to 19.1 million ounces. Coeur d’Alene Mines describes itself as the biggest US-based primary silver producer. But in fact their main silver output assets are produced on foreign land. The fifth-largest worldwide silver mine is Palmerejo in Mexico, which produced 9.04 million ounces in 2011. The eighth-ranked primary silver mine – San Bartolome in Bolivia, produced 7.5 million ounces of silver.
9. Compania de Minas Buenaventura
The company has an annual production of 15.3 million ounces of silver. Buenaventura is known as the biggest publicly-traded precious metals company in Peru. Supply from minority subsidiaries are shown in 2011 output figures. The company owns Uchucchacua – the fourth-largest primary silver mine with production of 10.09 million ounces of the metal.
10. Hochschild Mining
With 15 million ounces silver output Hochschild fell to bottom of our top 10. The company decreased its output because Moris mine in Mexico stopped operating in 2011. Hochschild also co-owns a mine in Argentina. Though, the main part of the production comes from mines in Peru. An example is a joint venture with a subsidiary of International Minerals – Pallancata mine. In this mine Hochschild has a stake of 60%. In 2011 Pallancata had an output of 8.77 millions silver ounces, witch made it the sixth leading white metal mine.
