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Great Panther Silver shares rise on Q1 production

Great Panther Silver said Q1 gold and silver production came in stronger than the previous comparable period, helped by recoveries from its Guanajuato mine.

Author: Maneesha Tiwari (Reuters)
Posted: Friday , 15 Apr 2011

(Reuters)  - 

Great Panther Silver Ltd's posted higher first-quarter gold and silver production helped by strong recoveries from its Guanajuato mine, sending its shares up as much as 6 percent.

The company's first-quarter gold production rose 45 percent to 2,310 ounces and silver production was up 15 percent to 410,640 ounces.

The company, which has mines in Mexico, reported better gold grades from the Santa Margarita vein of about 9.8 grams per tonne (g/t) of ore mined, versus 1.51 g/t last year. This vein accounted for about half the production from the Guanajuato mine.

First-quarter silver production from the Topia mine rose 5 percent to 137,219 ounces as compared with a year earlier.

The production growth for the company is good for the quarter but is expected to be higher in the second half of the year, taking production up by 2 million ounces by the end of the year, said analyst Christos Doulis of Stonecap Securities Inc.

The company backed its production target of 3.8 million silver equivalent ounces for 2012, a part of its three-year strategy to ramp up production.

Both gold and silver prices have soared as the global financial crisis boosted interest in precious metals as a haven from risk.

But silver has outpaced gold throughout last year and has rallied by a third so far in 2011, to trade at a 31-year high of $41.93 on Monday.

Shares of the Vancouver-based company were trading at C$4.03 before paring some gains and trading at C$3.97 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday. (Reporting by Maneesha Tiwari in Bangalore; Editing by Jarshad Kakkrakandy)

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