Pan American Silver announces 2021 guidance and preliminary 2020 production results

Pan American Silver, the operator of the Lakeshore Gold Mine in Timmins is predicting that Covid-19 will continue to hamper operations throughout 2021. 

The company has released its annual look back at the previous year and guidance for the current fiscal year.

"We assume operations will continue to be impacted by comprehensive COVID-19 protocols, which increase costs and restrict throughput levels, especially at our underground mines. The impact of COVID-19 on operations is expected to diminish over the course of 2021, as vaccinations are deployed throughout our operating jurisdictions later in the year. For the first quarter of 2021, we assume operations will experience the full effect of COVID-19 restrictions, similar to Q4 2020. We assume the impact of restrictions declines to 75% in the second quarter, 50% in the third quarter and 25% in the fourth quarter of 2021. The first quarter of 2022 is assumed to be the first period that will be free of COVID-19 restrictions, allowing operations to run at full capacity. The impact regarding the restrictions could improve or worsen relative to our assumptions, depending on how each jurisdiction manages potential outbreaks of COVID-19, the development and supply of vaccines, and the roll-out of vaccination programs in each jurisdiction," said the company in its statement.

Production at Lakeshore was on target for 2020 and Pan American plans to spend $5 million on exploration at its Wetmore target in Timmins. 

Tags: Northern Ontario / Operational Updates / Gold / All Articles