Pan American Silver Corp. (Pan American) principally engages in the operation and development of, and exploration for, silver and gold producing properties and assets.
The company’s principal products are silver and gold, although it also produces and sells zinc, lead, and copper.
As of December 31, 2024, the company operated mines and developed mining projects in Mexico, Peru, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Bolivia; and had control over non-producing assets in each of those jurisdictio...
Pan American Silver Corp. (Pan American) principally engages in the operation and development of, and exploration for, silver and gold producing properties and assets.
The company’s principal products are silver and gold, although it also produces and sells zinc, lead, and copper.
As of December 31, 2024, the company operated mines and developed mining projects in Mexico, Peru, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Bolivia; and had control over non-producing assets in each of those jurisdictions, in addition to Guatemala and the United States.
Pan American completed the Yamana Acquisition on March 31, 2023, acquiring four operating mines in Chile, Argentina and Brazil, as well as interests in exploration and development projects in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, including a 56.25% interest in the Minera Agua Rica Alumbrera project (the ‘MARA Project’) in Argentina. Pan American subsequently divested its interests in the MARA Project to Glencore International AG on September 20, 2023. Pan American also divested its interest in the Morococha mine in Peru, the Agua de la Falda project (and Jeronimo mine) in Chile in 2023.
The company completed the sale of the La Arena mine and La Arena II project in Peru in December 2024, and also divested the COSE and Joaquin mines that formerly comprised part of the larger Manantial Espejo mine in Argentina, which is now in closure.
Products and Operations
The company’s principal products and sources of sales are silver and gold dore and silver-bearing zinc, lead, and copper concentrates. In 2024, the La Colorada, Cerro Moro, Dolores, Huaron, Jacobina, El Peñon, Minera Florida, Shahuindo, La Arena, Timmins West, Bell Creek, and San Vicente mines accounted for all of its production of concentrates and dore.
Silver and Gold Dore
The company’s principal buyers of silver and gold dore produced from its La Colorada, Dolores, Shahuindo, La Arena, Timmins, Jacobina, Cerro Moro, El Peñon and Minera Florida mines, once refined, are international bullion banks and traders, except for the gold produced from La Colorada, which is sold to Maverix Metals Inc. (Maverix) pursuant to the Maverix Gold Stream. During the company’s ownership of the La Arena mine in 2024, the gold production from the mine continued to be committed under an off-take agreement with a third-party that provided financing in respect of the original construction of the asset. Additionally, the company inherited a silver stream arrangement between Yamana and Sandstorm Gold Ltd. (Sandstorm) whereby Yamana agreed to deliver 20% of the silver produced at Cerro Moro to Sandstorm, up to a maximum of 1.2 million ounces of silver annually, for consideration of 30% of the spot price of silver at the time each ounce of silver is delivered. When 7.0 million ounces of silver have been delivered to Sandstorm, the silver stream will reduce to 9.0% of the silver produced for the life of the mine. As of December 31, 2024, the company had delivered 6.7 million ounces to Sandstorm. Silver and gold dore are delivered to refineries in Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United States, and subsequently transferred to the accounts of its buyers.
Zinc, Lead, Copper and Silver Concentrates
The majority of the company’s concentrate production is sold to international concentrate traders and smelters. Concentrate production from the La Colorada mine is delivered to the buyers at various ports and smelting facilities in Mexico. Concentrate production from the Huaron mine is delivered to the buyers at the port of Callao, Peru, with the exception of a portion of the zinc concentrate which is delivered to the Cajamarquilla smelting facility in Peru. Concentrate production from the San Vicente mine is delivered to the buyers at ports in Chile and Peru. Concentrate production from the Minera Florida mine is delivered to the buyers at various ports in Chile. From these ports, the concentrates are shipped by the buyers to various international locations.
Operating and Development Properties
The company had identified the following properties and projects as being material as of December 31, 2024: the La Colorada property, the Shahuindo mine, the Jacobina mine, and the El Peñon mine. The company has also identified the suspended Escobal mine as a material property for 2024.
Operating Properties
Mexico
La Colorada Property
The La Colorada underground silver mine is located in Zacatecas State, Mexico.
The company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Plata Panamericana, owns and operates the mine. The La Colorada property, including the La Colorada skarn project area and certain exploration concessions outside the mining area, comprising 56 mining claims totaling approximately 8,840 hectares.
The company has control over or rights in respect of approximately 2,400 hectares of surface area covering the main workings and surrounding lands. All of the La Colorada mineral reserves and mineral resources and all of the known mineralized zones, mine workings, the processing plant, effluent management and treatment systems, and tailings disposal areas are located within the mining claims controlled by it.
In 2024, the Maverix Gold Stream resulted in Maverix acquiring 1,466 ounces of gold.
In 2024, the company undertook certain mining activities on a mining concession adjacent to the La Colorada property and treated these materials utilizing the La Colorada mine infrastructure.
The La Colorada property is located in the Sierra Madre Occidental volcanic belt, at the contact between the Lower Volcanic Supergroup and the Upper Volcanic Supergroup.
During 2024, the company processed 590.0 thousand tonnes, producing 4.9 million ounces of silver, 2.6 thousand ounces of gold, 11.4 thousand tonnes of zinc, 7.0 thousand tonnes of lead, and 0.2 thousand tonnes of copper.
Peru
Shahuindo Mine
The Shahuindo mine is an open pit gold mine located in northern Peru.
Shahuindo comprises one main mineral right, Acumulacion Shahuindo, and two smaller mining concessions, Vikingo and Vikingo I, 100% controlled by Pan American’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Shahuindo SAC, and has an approximate area of 9,197 hectares. The mining claims have no expiry date.
Shahuindo SAC has acquired 698 surface rights within Shahuindo covering a total area of about 3,158.78 ha. Some of these surface rights were used to relocate local land owners into new areas.
The Shahuindo mine is located on the eastern flank of the Andean Western Cordillera in northern Peru, within a regional fold and thrust belt of predominantly Mesozoic sedimentary rocks intruded by felsic stocks located along faults and cores of anticlinal structures.
The company maintains core-storage facilities at the project site and one leased storage warehouse in the city of Cajamarca. All core generated at Shahuindo is stored at either of these facilities.
Shahuindo consists of an open pit mine and heap leach processing facility that is in production and has been operating since November 2015. The Shahuindo mine uses conventional cyanide run-of-mine heap leaching and a carbon-in-column adsorption circuit process.
Shahuindo produces gold in the form of dore bars and has contracts in place with Asahi Refining Canada, Argor Heraeus and Metalor in Switzerland, for refining the dore produced on site. The dore is transported to these facilities where it is refined to the London Good Delivery specification.
Shahuindo is a mature operating mine and site infrastructure, including site roads that are fully developed to support the existing mine production.
Brazil
Jacobina Mine
The Jacobina mine is located 10 km from the town of Jacobina. The Jacobina mineral rights consist of approximately 5,954 hectares of mining concessions, 58,010 hectares of exploration permits, and one 650 hectare mining claim; all of which are held by Pan American through its wholly-owned subsidiary, JMC, which it acquired through the Yamana Acquisition in March 2023. The exploration concessions are renewable on a three-year basis. JMC holds all of the surface rights required for the development of its activities.
The Jacobina mine is a mature operating mine and site infrastructure that is fully developed to support the existing mine production.
Jacobina operates five mines and has all required infrastructure necessary for a mining complex. The major facilities associated with Jacobina include a conventional flotation mill, with leach and CIP tanks, which produces gold dore, mine and mill infrastructure, including office buildings, shops, and equipment.
During 2024, the Jacobina mine processed a total of approximately 3.1 million tonnes, producing 196.7 thousand ounces of gold.
Chile
El Peñon Mine
The El Peñon mine is owned by Pan American through its wholly-owned subsidiary Minera Meridian, which Pan American acquired as part of the Yamana Acquisition in 2023. Yamana acquired the property in late 2007.
The El Peñón property consists of 569 individual mining claims, 527 exploitation claims and 42 exploration clams. The claims comprise an area measuring 121,453 ha that covers the El Peñón core mine area, the Chiquilla Chica area, the Fortuna area, the Laguna area, the Pampa Augusta Victoria (PAV) area, the Tostado Sur area, and the surrounding exploration lands.
El Peñon is located in the Central Depression (also known as the Central or Longitudinal Valley), that extends for 650 km from the Chile-Peru border in the north to south-central Chile in the south.
The El Peñon mine is a mature operating mine and site infrastructure that is fully developed to support the existing mine production.
El Peñon consists of historical open pits, underground mining operations, a process plant, and other support infrastructure, including waste dumps and a filtered tailings facility. The approved plant capacity is 4,800 tpd. The major assets and facilities associated with El Peñon are the mining and processing infrastructure, which include office buildings, shops, and equipment; a processing plant which produces gold dore by crushing, grinding, leaching, counter-current decantation concentrate solution recovery, zinc precipitation and refining; concrete and cemented backfill plants, and a filtered tailings stack storage facility.
El Peñon is connected to the National Electric Grid through a 66 kV transmission line connected to the Palestina substation.
Non-Operating and Development Properties
Escobal Mine
The Escobal mine is an underground silver-gold-lead-zinc mine in Guatemala.
The Escobal mine is 100% owned by Pan American through its wholly-owned subsidiary, PASG, and comprises two mineral licenses covering approximately 29.2 km². These include the Escobal Exploitation License (the Escobal mining license) covering 20 km².
Within the Escobal mining licence, PASG owns approximately 300 hectares for the area required for mining operations, processing plant and ancillary facilities, surface operations, and tailings and waste rock disposal. The company’s ownership of certain of these lands has been challenged in the Guatemalan Courts.
Non-Material Properties and Interests
The company owns interests in other mineral properties in each of the jurisdictions in which it operates, including the Minera Florida mine in Chile, the Dolores mine in Mexico, the Huaron mine in Peru, the San Vicente mine in Bolivia, the Bell Creek and Timmins West mines in Canada, and the Cerro Moro mine and the Navidad property in Argentina, and certain other exploration and development properties in various jurisdictions, including Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, the United States, and Canada. The Manantial Espejo mine in Argentina is in the reclamation phase and mining activity has ceased. The company’s Alamo Dorado mine in Mexico is in the reclamation phase and mining activity has ceased. Pan American does not consider these properties to be material properties.
History
The company was incorporated under the Company Act (British Columbia) in 1979 under the name Pan American Energy Corporation. In 1984, the company's memorandum was amended to change its name to Pan American Minerals Corp. and in 1995 the company's memorandum was again amended to change the company's name to Pan American Silver Corp.