Pan American Silver founder Ross Beaty to retire
Pan American Silver Corp. [PAAS-TSX, NASDAQ] on Wednesday February 3 said founder Ross Beaty will retire as Board Chair and director at the company’s annual meeting on May 12, 2021. The Board intends to appoint Ms. Gillian Winckler as Chair of the Board, and to name Beaty as Chair Emeritus.
Beaty founded Pan American Silver in 1994 and has served as Chair since then. He was also CEO since the company’s inception until 2004. During the last 27 years, the company has grown from a start-up to become the world’s second largest primary silver producer with the world’s largest silver reserves and resources, while also becoming a significant gold producer.
On Wednesday, Pan American Silver shares eased 0.42% or $0.17 to $40.47 on volume of 287,771. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $53.30 and $14.22.
Monday’s announcement comes after the price of silver soared 11.2% to nearly an eight-year high of US$29.41/oz on February 1, 2021 before slipping back to US$26.40 the following day. Silver rallied as investors in Asia followed up frenzied buying by U.S. counterparts last week following a social media-led call to push the market higher.
Both a safe-haven asset and an industrial metal, silver had rallied when posts began circulating on Reddit urging individual investors to buy silver mining stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETF) backed by physical silver bars in a GameStop-style squeeze.
On Wednesday, spot silver was priced at US$27.09/oz.
Pan American owns and operates mines in Mexico, Peru, Canada, Argentina and Bolivia. In Canada, the portfolio includes the Timmins West and Bell Creek (together Timmins) operations, which were recently taken off the selling block.
In 2020, Pan American reported consolidated annual silver and gold production of 17.3 million ounces and 522,400 ounces respectively.
By comparison n 2019, Pan American reported consolidated annual silver and gold production of 25.9 million ounces and 559,200 ounces respectively.
“We are expecting a 35% increase in silver production relative to 2020 and record gold production in 2021,” said Pan American President and CEO Michael Steinmann.
Winckler joined Pan American’s board in May 2016 and has served on, or chaired, most of the committees since then. She is a former mining and business executive with over 25 years of diversified experience in the metals and mining industry and the financial sector.