Pan American Silver (TSE:PAA) Production Update

Pan American Silver (TSE:PAA) released an update of its silver and gold production for the latest quarter,

Gold production increased to 27,896 ounces, a nice 34 percent rise over the same quarter last year.

Silver production surged to 5.5 million ounces, an increase of 13 percent over the same quarter in 2009.

So far for the year, silver production is about 3 percent behind estimates for 2010 for the first quarter, while gold production is up by close to 8,000 ounces.

Gold production was driven largely from the better than expected results from the Manantial Espejo mine in Argentina. Lower cash costs were also related to better prices of gold than projected.

For silver, production is expected to pick up and estimates of 23.4 million ounces should be achieved for the year, said the company.