First Majestic earns a record $23.9 million in first quarter of 2011

Marketwire | May 16, 2011 | 2:07 pm Precious Metals Gold Silver 

First Majestic announced the unaudited consolidated interim financial results for the company for the first quarter ending March 31, 2011. Highlights are following:

  • Generated Revenues of $55.3 million for the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 211% compared to $17.7 million in the first quarter of 2010 and an increase of 38% or $15.2 million compared to the fourth quarter of 2010, spurred on by a 95% increase in the average realized price of silver, combined with a 13% increase in production. Smelting and refining charges decreased to 4% of gross revenue in 2011 compared to 17% of gross revenue in the first quarter of 2010. Average refining charges for doré in the first quarter were $0.37 per equivalent silver ounce whereas smelting charges for concentrates were $5.46 per equivalent silver ounce.
  • Recognized Mine Operating Earnings of $35.6 million for the first quarter of 2011 compared to $7.2 million in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 397%. The increase was attributed to an increase in production from 1.3 million ounces of silver equivalent (not including pre-commercial production) in 2010 to 1.8 million ounces of silver equivalent in the first quarter of 2011, combined with an increase in average realized silver sales prices from $16.73 in the first quarter of 2010 to $32.60 in the first quarter of 2011.
  • Earned cash flows from operations of $34.4 million ($0.34 per share) (a non-IFRS measure) for the first quarter of 2011 compared to $6.3 million ($0.07 per share) for the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 407%.
  • The Company generated net earnings of $23.9 million for the first quarter of 2011 compared to net earnings of $0.4 million in the first quarter of 2010 and net earnings of $13.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.
  • The Company generated basic earnings per common share (“EPS”) after current income tax provision (a non-IFRS measure) of $0.29 for the first quarter of 2011. EPS for the first quarter of 2011 after current and deferred income taxes was $0.24, compared to EPS of $0.00 for the first quarter of 2010 and $0.15 for the fourth quarter of 2010.
  • Increased production from 1,619,403 silver equivalent ounces in the first quarter of 2010 to 1,825,366 silver equivalent ounces in 2011, an increase of 13%. Production was comparable with the fourth quarter of 2010 with a 1% increase in silver production but a slight decrease of production of equivalents from lead and gold. The Company continues to produce 97% of its production as pure silver, making First Majestic the purest silver producing mining company in the world.
  • Total Cash Costs per ounce (a non-IFRS measure) increased by 6% from $7.78 in the fourth quarter of 2010 to $8.26 in the first quarter of 2011, due to increased costs of energy, reagents, labour and a 3% appreciation of the Mexican Peso relative to the US dollar.
  • Cash and cash equivalents increased to $85.6 million compared to $41.2 million as at December 31, 2010 and improved working capital to $84.9 million from $46.1 million as at December 31, 2010. The current cash balance as at May 13, 2011 was approximately $97.1 million, giving the Company a very solid financial base to work from to continue to expand the La Parrilla operation and to build out the new Del Toro operation; both currently under construction.

In Summary

First Majestic has experienced a new record for quarterly earnings for the first quarter of 2011 due to a 30% increase in average realized silver prices over the prior quarter and a 95% increase from the same quarter of 2010.Silver production in the first quarter remained steady at the same levels as the fourth quarter of 2010, which is up 25% over the first quarter of 2010.

“In this past quarter, the Company benefited from the strong surge in silver prices while maintainingits production levels comparable to the previous quarter,even with two major construction projects underway. The expansion of the La Parrilla operation is proceeding well and on track while land clearing and mine development at Del Toro is advancing nicely. We are continuing to focus on our capital projects to expand production in the second half of 2011 and to plan for further growth into 2012 and beyond. Weakness in the US dollar is translating into a higher Mexican Peso and thus a higher US denominated cash costs. As well, some core inflation in the prices of materials and energy used in the processing of silver is occurring. The production outlook remains unchanged as does the cash cost outlook, but we will revisit our cost estimates after the second quarter to determine if our cash cost outlook can remain constant for 2011. We are attempting to counter cost increases with an aggressive growth strategy to yield higher throughputs and economies of scale, as we continue to focus on building our production levels in the short and long term,” commented Keith Neumeyer, President and CEO of First Majestic.

First Majestic is a producing silver company focused on silver production in México and is aggressively pursuing its business plan of becoming a senior silver producer through the development of its existing mineral property assets and the pursuit through acquisition of additional mineral assets which contribute to the Company achieving its aggressive corporate growth objectives.

Read the full news release here.

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