Gold and silver shares traded slightly lower late Wednesday morning, as the Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index (XAU) dipped 0.4% to 184.62. The losses were fueled by a modest sell-off in precious metals, as COMEX gold futures fell $4.70 to $1,612.90 per ounce and silver futures slid $0.17 to $29.37 per ounce.
Precious metals turned lower as the U.S. dollar advanced moderately against a basket of foreign currencies. The euro declined 0.4% to 1.3033 against the dollar in late morning trading.
Notable gold stocks heading south included AngloGold Ashanti (AU), Goldcorp (GG), and Harmony Gold (HMY). AU retreated by 1.0% to $42.16 per share, GG by 0.9% to $45.17 per share, and HMY by 1.3% to $11.94 per share.
Among silver companies, Silver Wheaton (SLW) dropped 1.0% to $29.49 per share and Hecla Mining (HL) inched lower by 0.5% to $5.62 per share. Hecla’s decline was fueled in part by UBS, which lowered its 12-month price target on HL to $9.85 from $10.00 per share.
The reduction was based on a longer than expected suspension period for the Company’s Lucky Friday silver mine in Idaho, and on Hecla’s announcement this morning that 2012 production is forecasted to come in at 9.5 million ounces – below the 10.6 million expected by UBS.
Fortuna Silver Mines Added to S&P/TSX Composite
- Fortuna recently reported its best quarter yet yet in terms of net income, cash flow and metal production
- The Company’s San Jose mine in Mexico declared commercial operations in September and Fortuna expects to report sustained low cost quarterly silver production growth as it expands San Jose from 1,000 tonnes per day (tpd) to the design capacity of 1,500 tpd
- Fortuna is on pace to generate sustained quarterly production growth to the planned annual rate of 4.9 million ounces of silver and 26,000 ounces of gold by Q4 2013
