First Majestic Silver raised its 2026 silver production guidance by 10% to 14.6-15.5 million ounces after a record 2025 fuelled by the $1.05 billion Gatos Silver acquisition, even as costs rose on stronger metal prices and a firmer peso.
At a glance
- First Majestic raised its full-year 2026 silver production guidance 10% to 14.6-15.5 million ounces, up from an original 13.0-14.4 million ounce forecast.
- Q2 2026 silver production reached 3.8 million ounces, up 3% year-over-year, with Los Gatos hitting record monthly throughput of 4,078 tonnes per day in June.
- 2026 AISC guidance also rose 4% at the midpoint, to $27.69-$28.77 per silver-equivalent ounce, driven by stronger silver prices and a firmer Mexican peso pushing up local operating costs.
- The upgrade follows a record 2025 -- 15.4 million ounces of silver produced, an 84% year-over-year jump, built substantially on the $1.05 billion Gatos Silver acquisition completed in January 2025.
What happened
First Majestic Silver Corp. raised its full-year 2026 silver production guidance to 14.6-15.5 million ounces, up 10% from its original forecast of 13.0-14.4 million ounces, the Canada-based miner said alongside its second-quarter 2026 results. The company produced 3.8 million ounces of silver in the quarter, a 3% increase from 3.7 million ounces a year earlier, and lifted guidance specifically for its Los Gatos underground mine in Chihuahua, Mexico to 5.1-5.5 million ounces -- a 5% improvement -- after the operation hit record monthly throughput in June, averaging 4,078 tonnes of ore processed per day.
The upgrade builds on a record 2025, when First Majestic produced 15.4 million ounces of silver, an 84% jump from the prior year, and 31.1 million silver-equivalent ounces across its portfolio. Much of that growth traces to the company's acquisition of a 70% joint-venture interest in the Los Gatos mine, completed on January 16, 2025 in a deal valued at $1.05 billion; Los Gatos alone contributed 9 million silver-equivalent ounces and $490 million in revenue during its first year under First Majestic's control. Alongside the higher production guidance, First Majestic also raised its 2026 all-in sustaining cost (AISC) guidance to $27.69-$28.77 per silver-equivalent ounce, up 4% at the midpoint from its original $26.15-$27.91 range -- a cost increase the company attributed to higher-than-forecast silver prices and a stronger Mexican peso, which averaged 17.50 to the US dollar in the first half of 2026 versus the 18.25 rate the original guidance assumed.
The details
First Majestic's guidance raise is a rare case where both halves of a mining company's story move in the same direction for a genuinely good reason. Production guidance rose 10% at the midpoint. Cost guidance rose too, by 4%. Normally a cost increase alongside a production increase reads as a warning sign -- inflation eating into the benefit of higher output. Here, the company's own explanation points the other way: the peso strengthened to 17.50 per US dollar in the first half of 2026, well past the 18.25 rate original guidance assumed, which mechanically raises the US-dollar cost of everything First Majestic pays for in pesos, from labour to local supplies, even though nothing about the mine's physical operations got less efficient. Combine that with realized silver prices running above what the company forecast when it set original guidance, and the AISC increase is largely an accounting consequence of a stronger revenue environment rather than a sign of operational strain.
The deeper story is what a single acquisition did to this company's production profile in under two years. Los Gatos, a 70% joint-venture interest First Majestic bought for $1.05 billion in January 2025, contributed 9 million silver-equivalent ounces and $490 million in revenue in its first year alone -- a meaningful share of the 15.4 million ounces First Majestic produced company-wide in 2025. That single deal is most of the reason overall production jumped 84% year-over-year. Eighteen months later, Los Gatos is still ramping up rather than plateauing: June's throughput of 4,078 tonnes per day was a monthly record, and the mine's own 2026 guidance just got raised 5% on top of an already-strong original forecast.
What makes this a genuine outlook story rather than a one-quarter beat is the trajectory across three separate guidance points now on the record: the original 2026 forecast set alongside 2025's results, the updated guidance issued with Q2 2026 production, and the underlying Los Gatos-specific number sitting inside both. Each revision moved in the same direction -- higher production, and costs that rose for reasons tied to favourable market conditions rather than operational problems. For a company that needed a transformative deal to reach this scale, the fact that the newly acquired asset keeps beating its own internal targets, quarter after quarter, is the stronger signal than either guidance number in isolation.
Why it matters
First Majestic's guidance raise is a data point on how quickly acquired silver supply can actually ramp -- Los Gatos went from a $1.05 billion deal in January 2025 to record monthly throughput and an upgraded 2026 target within about eighteen months, a much faster timeline than building a new mine from scratch. For a global silver market that has struggled with persistent supply deficits, a major producer both raising output guidance and describing costs as rising because of stronger prices, not operational strain, is a useful real-world read on how the current silver price environment is actually affecting a top-tier miner's economics rather than just its share price.
Our read
Outlook: neutral. This is company-specific production and cost guidance rather than new information about global silver supply-demand balance. The production increase is a modest addition to one producer's output, and the cost guidance increase reflects favourable market conditions (higher realized prices, a stronger peso) rather than a fresh catalyst -- making the direct near-term read on silver's own price neutral even though the news is clearly bullish for First Majestic as a company.
What to watch
- Whether First Majestic's full-year 2026 results land within or above the newly raised 14.6-15.5 million ounce guidance range
- Further Los Gatos throughput updates given the mine's pattern of beating its own ramp-up guidance since the January 2025 acquisition
- Mexican peso movements relative to the 17.50-18.25 range that has already driven one AISC guidance revision this year
For information only, not investment advice.
Silver price in India
metalscost.com India reference price as of 2026-10-03.
Detailed analysis
Timeline
- 2025-01-16: First Majestic completed its acquisition of a 70% joint-venture interest in the Los Gatos underground silver mine from Gatos Silver, in a deal valued at $1.05 billion.
- 2025-12-31: First Majestic closed out a record 2025, producing 15.4 million ounces of silver (up 84% year-over-year) and 31.1 million silver-equivalent ounces, with Los Gatos contributing 9 million AgEq ounces and $490 million in revenue.
- 2026-06-30: Los Gatos hit record monthly throughput in June 2026, averaging 4,078 tonnes of ore processed per day.
- 2026-09-21: First Majestic's updated 2026 outlook -- 14.6-15.5 million ounces of silver guidance, up 10% from the original forecast -- was covered following its Q2 2026 results.
Supply Drivers
First Majestic raised 2026 silver production guidance 10% to 14.6-15.5 million ounces, driven largely by the Los Gatos mine's own 5% guidance increase to 5.1-5.5 million ounces after record monthly throughput of 4,078 tonnes per day in June 2026 -- supply growth stemming from the January 2025 Gatos Silver acquisition rather than new project development.
Currency Impact
A stronger Mexican peso -- averaging 17.50 to the US dollar in the first half of 2026 versus the 18.25 rate original guidance assumed -- raised the US-dollar cost of First Majestic's peso-denominated operating expenses, contributing to the 4% increase in 2026 AISC guidance despite unchanged mine-level operating performance.
Mining Production
Q2 2026 silver production reached 3.8 million ounces (up 3% year-over-year), building on a record 2025 of 15.4 million ounces (up 84% year-over-year) that was driven substantially by the integration of the Los Gatos underground mine in Chihuahua, Mexico.
What could lift prices
- 2026 silver production guidance was raised 10% to 14.6-15.5 million ounces, with the Los Gatos mine hitting record monthly throughput in June and its own guidance raised 5% on top of that.
- The 2025 acquisition of Gatos Silver already contributed 9 million silver-equivalent ounces and $490 million in revenue in its first year, and continues to outperform its own ramp-up targets eighteen months later.
- Rising AISC guidance was explicitly tied to a stronger peso and higher realized silver prices -- both signs of a favourable market environment rather than operational cost inflation.
What could weigh on prices
- 2026 AISC guidance still rose 4% at the midpoint to $27.69-$28.77 per silver-equivalent ounce, meaning higher production is arriving alongside genuinely higher per-ounce costs regardless of the underlying cause.
Country impact
| Country | Impact | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Mexico | High | First Majestic's production growth is concentrated in Mexican operations, including the newly integrated Los Gatos mine in Chihuahua, making the country central to the company's raised 2026 output and the peso's exchange rate a direct driver of its cost guidance. |
Who gains, who loses
- First Majestic Silver shareholders: Raised production guidance and a fast-ramping, recently acquired asset point to continued output growth, while management has framed rising costs as a byproduct of stronger silver prices rather than operational strain.
Other ways this could play out
- If the Mexican peso weakens back toward First Majestic's original 18.25-per-dollar assumption, 2026 AISC could land closer to the company's original, lower cost guidance even with production at the raised level.
- If Los Gatos' throughput growth continues at its current pace, First Majestic could see further guidance increases later in 2026 similar to the upgrade issued with Q2 results.
Price risks
- A reversal in the Mexican peso back toward weaker levels could pull First Majestic's realized AISC lower, altering the cost dynamics behind this guidance update.
- Continued strength in silver prices, cited as a factor in the cost guidance increase, would need to hold for the current cost-to-production relationship described by management to persist through year-end.
Historical comparison
- 2024 vs. 2025: First Majestic's silver production jumped 84% year-over-year in 2025, from a materially lower 2024 base, primarily on the back of the Gatos Silver acquisition completed in January 2025.
Technical view
Price is trading below both its 20-period and 50-period moving averages, a bearish alignment.
Computed from metalscost.com's own stored price history.
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