World top 20 silver producers – countries and companies

Mexico comfortably retained the World No. 1 producer slot for silver in 2013, while that country’s Fresnillo moved into the top spot among silver miners.

LONDON (MINEWEB) - 

Only just over a week ago we published a listing of the World top 10 gold producers - countries and companies as researched by consultancy Metals Focus – and this week we are going one better with Silver with a listing of the Top 20 silver producing countries and companies as researched by Thomson Reuters GFMS, and published in its latest annual silver study for the Silver Institute in the U.S.   GFMS reported that global silver production and demand were both at all time highs in 2013, with demand exceeding supply by over 260 million ounces.

Mexico remains top of the tree among silver producing nations, while Peru is reported to have moved above China into second place, but by the smallest of margins.  Further down the listing, Bolivia and Chile in 6th and 7th places both overtook Poland which is now in 8th place.  Guatemala also moved up two places in 15th place with Morocco and Turkey falling back to 16th and 17th respectively.  New entrants in the Top 20 this year were Armenia and Papua New Guinea.  The full Top 20 table for production by country appears below:

Top 20 Silver Producing Countries - 2013

In the companies table Fresnillo moved to world No. 1 in 2013 as Poland’s KGHM Polska Miedsz fell back to third and BHP Billiton, although it remained in second place, saw production fall 3.6%.  Notable among the silver miners were First Majestic with a 27.7% rise in production with production set to grow even further this year, and Hecla with a 39.1% production increase as its big Lucky Friday mine came back on stream for almost the full year.  Guidance suggests further output growth this year too.

Top 20 Silver Producing Companies - 2013