Silver Mines in Mexico: Top States, Mines and Owners

Mexico’s silver comes mostly from the north and centre of the country, and one state dominates. Zacatecas produced 41.8% of the national total in 2025, ahead of Chihuahua (18.3%), Durango (17.3%) and Sonora (13.3%), according to the 2026 annual report of Camimex, the national mining chamber, which uses INEGI statistics. Mexico mined 172.9 million troy ounces (Moz) in 2025, about a fifth of the world’s 844.1 Moz, per the World Silver Survey 2026 from Metals Focus and the Silver Institute.

This guide answers the question the way a buyer, investor or licence holder asks it: which states, which districts, which mines, who owns them and how much they produced. It also covers the Zacatecas mines that people search for by name, explains why output has been falling, and ends with a calculator you can use on any mine’s published numbers. For the company side of the story, see our list of Mexican silver mining companies; for a wider view that also covers other countries, see where to find silver mines in Mexico and key global locations.

Which Mexican states produce the most silver

Silver output is concentrated. Four states account for 90.7% of the 168.2 Moz that Camimex reports for 2025 (Zacatecas, Chihuahua, Durango and Sonora), and San Luis Potosí adds 3.0%. Every other state together makes up 6.4%. The table lists each state’s share, its main producing mines with owners, and what changed in 2025. Shares are of silver production measured by INEGI; mine names and owners come from Camimex and the company filings cited in each row.

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Share of Mexico’s silver output by state

Per cent of national silver production, 2025

The falls matter more than the ranking. Camimex notes that the biggest mine-level falls in 2025 were in Zacatecas and Chihuahua, and the biggest gains in Durango, Oaxaca and Guerrero. Because a state’s volume can swing on one or two mines, check the mine-level tables below before drawing conclusions about a district.

Zacatecas mines: Peñasquito, Fresnillo and the rest of the state

Zacatecas is the answer most people are looking for when they type “Zacatecas mine”, and the state hosts several different kinds of operation: one very large open pit, a cluster of underground vein mines around the town of Fresnillo, and older workings that now take visitors.

Peñasquito: the biggest silver producer in Mexico

Peñasquito sits in the north-eastern corner of the state and is a polymetallic open-pit mine, producing gold, silver, lead and zinc from two pits, Peñasco and Chile Colorado. Newmont took full ownership when it acquired Goldcorp in 2019, and the mine is described by Mining Technology as Mexico’s biggest open pit. It produced 28.0 Moz of silver in 2025, down 15% from 33.0 Moz in 2024 because of a significant drop in silver head grades (the average silver content of the ore fed to the plant), which outweighed higher throughput (World Silver Survey 2026). That still made it the second-largest silver mine in the world, behind KGHM’s consolidated copper operations in Poland.

The Fresnillo district: Fresnillo, Saucito and Juanicipio

Fresnillo plc runs three of Mexico’s five largest silver mines in and around the town of Fresnillo: Juanicipio (17.6 Moz in 2025), Saucito (14.3 Moz) and the Fresnillo mine itself (11.8 Moz). Fresnillo plc holds 56% of Juanicipio and Pan American Silver holds 44% following its acquisition of MAG Silver. The district has a long record: a 2013 paper in Scientific Reports notes that mineralisation was discovered on Cerro Proaño in 1553, that near-surface silver oxides were mined from 1554 to 1942, and that district resources exceeded 48,000 tonnes of silver, the largest silver deposit in Mexico and the second largest in the world at the time of writing.

The company as a whole is in a weaker patch. Fresnillo plc reported attributable silver production of 48.7 Moz for 2025, down 13.5% on 2024, and guidance of 42.0 to 46.5 Moz for 2026. In the first half of 2026 it produced 22.0 Moz, down 11.4% on the same period of 2025, citing lower grades, less ore processed at Saucito and Ciénega, and the end of the Silverstream contract’s contribution.

La Colorada, San Martín, Cozamin and smaller mines

La Colorada, owned 100% by Pan American Silver, produced 6.0 Moz in 2025, up 23% after a ramp expansion allowed larger trucks and more throughput (World Silver Survey 2026). Southern Copper’s San Martín mine mines lead, copper, zinc and silver, and Capstone Copper’s Cozamin and Minera Frisco’s Tayahua and El Coronel are the other producers Camimex names in the state. Cozamin’s silver fell 6% in 2025, while El Coronel rose more than fourfold from a small base.

Visiting a Zacatecas silver mine

The El Edén mine in the city of Zacatecas is one of the earliest European-style shaft mines in the area. According to Visit Mexico, tunnelling began in 1586, about 40 years after the first silver veins were found nearby, and the mine produced silver and gold until it closed in 1960. It now runs guided tours with a mine-cart ride and a minerals museum, and it is a short walk from the Plaza de Armas. It is a tourist site, not a working mine.

Top 10 silver mines in Mexico, ranked by output

How we chose. The ranking uses 2025 silver production from Appendix 11 of the World Silver Survey 2026, which lists the 30 largest silver-producing mines in the world. Every Mexican mine in that list is included here, ten in all. One mine that Camimex ranks highly does not appear in the survey list: El Herrero (Minas de Bacis, Durango), which Camimex puts at 8.34 Moz in 2025, fifth in its own ranking. Figures are silver contained in concentrate or doré, in million troy ounces; for joint ventures the survey reports the whole mine, not each partner’s share. Camimex publishes a slightly different mine list built from company reports, so a few numbers differ between the two sources.

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Silver output at Mexico’s eight largest of the survey’s top-30 mines

Million troy ounces of contained silver, 2024 and 2025

Together the ten mines produced 116.6 Moz, equal to roughly two-thirds of the survey’s 172.9 Moz national figure. Four of them (Juanicipio, Saucito, Fresnillo and San Julián) belong to Fresnillo plc, which the company calls the world’s largest primary silver producer, and five of the ten are in Zacatecas. Buenavista is a copper mine; its silver is a by-product, and the Southern Copper annual report lists Buenavista as one of the three units of its Mexican subsidiary Minera Mexico, alongside La Caridad and the IMMSA underground group. First Majestic’s second-quarter 2026 report confirms its 70% interest in the Los Gatos joint venture and its other Mexican mines (San Dimas, Santa Elena and La Encantada).

Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora and the central states, district by district

Chihuahua

Chihuahua is the second-ranked state with 18.3% of output. Palmarejo (Coeur) and Cerro Los Gatos are the large silver producers; Dolores (Pan American Silver) fell 44% in 2025 on the Camimex figures, while Southern Copper’s Santa Bárbara grew 17.2%. Fresnillo’s San Julián, on the border with Durango, lost 30% after mining ended in its disseminated ore body.

Durango

Durango had the biggest swing in 2025: total volume fell 21.8%, yet San Dimas (First Majestic) rose 18.5%, El Herrero 10% (Camimex ranks it fifth-largest in Mexico at 8.34 Moz) and Luca Mining’s Tahuehueto 137.2%. Camimex also flags Guanaceví (Endeavour Silver) and Fresnillo’s Ciénega, which fell 2.6% and 42.6%. Avino’s La Preciosa project, where an access ramp of about 360 metres was started toward the Gloria and Abundancia veins, is the main development project Camimex names in the state.

Sonora

Part of Sonora’s 13.3% is by-product silver from copper mines. Southern Copper’s Buenavista del Cobre (8.2 Moz in the survey) grew 30.7% in Camimex’s figures and La Caridad 21.9%, while Coeur’s Las Chispas fell 10.7%.

Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí and the south

Guanajuato was one of the great colonial silver centres; Geo-Mexico notes that the region supplied nearly a third of the world’s silver in colonial times. Today Guanajuato Silver operates Bolañitos (up 34.4% in 2025), El Cubo and La Valenciana, and Fresnillo plc is advancing its Guanajuato project along a vein field more than 40 kilometres long; total resources are about 388 Moz of silver and 3 million ounces of gold, and the company drilled 107,759 metres there in 2025. In San Luis Potosí, Charcas is the main producer. Further south, Taxco in Guerrero is, per Geo-Mexico, the centre of silversmithing in Mexico, and Campo Morado (Luca Mining) and Capela (Peñoles) are among the producers; in the State of Mexico, La Guitarra made 272,268 ounces in 2025, and in Jalisco, Endeavour Silver’s Terronera started commercial production on 1 October 2025.

Reading the map: why the mines line up and where to see it

The mines above share a style of deposit. Most Mexican silver sits in epithermal veins, which are the exposed remains of ancient geothermal systems: hot, metal-bearing fluids rose through faults and deposited silver close to the surface. The Scientific Reports paper cited above states that Mexico has an unusually rich endowment of silver, mostly in epithermal vein deposits, and has produced more than 25% of the world’s total of the metal. At Fresnillo the ore formed in several events between 32 and 29 million years ago, in Mesozoic marine sedimentary rocks interleaved with basalt and capped by younger volcanic rocks. Because veins follow faults, productive ground tends to be strung out along structures, and old workings often mark the surface expression.

To see these districts on a map, the Servicio Geológico Mexicano (SGM) publishes GeoInfoMex, a data bank of geological and mining map layers for the country. The SGM also publishes a statistical yearbook of Mexican mining. For a mine-by-mine view, use the tables on this page together with the company reports linked in the sources. Remember that a map of mines shows where silver has been found and produced, not where the next deposit lies.

▶ Explains in plain words what remote sensing for mining means and how it is used to screen ground. · 2:01

How much silver Mexico produces, and why output is falling

Three published totals for 2025 are all in use, because they measure different things. The World Silver Survey 2026 gives 172.9 Moz (5,378 tonnes), Camimex reports 168.2 Moz from INEGI data, down 7.1% on 2024, and the US Geological Survey estimates 6,300 tonnes (about 203 Moz) in its Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, which puts Mexican reserves at 37,000 tonnes. All three rank Mexico first in the world, ahead of Peru (130.6 Moz in the survey) and China (112.8 Moz).

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Mexico’s silver mine production, 2016 to 2025

Million troy ounces

The trend is down. The survey records Mexico’s third consecutive fall, 5% in 2025, and attributes it to operating disruptions, changes in government policy and reserve depletion. Output peaked at 213.2 Moz in 2022. For 2026 the survey expects recovery at several operations, including Peñoles’ Tizapa after a long strike and Endeavour Silver’s Terronera as it moves to higher grades, but Fresnillo plc’s own guidance points to lower silver for 2026.

Falling volume has not hurt revenue, because the price rose. Camimex gives an average London (LBMA) price of US$40.03 per troy ounce for 2025, up 41.6% on the year before. On 28 October 2026 silver was trading at about US$53.84 per ounce, according to Trading Economics, a figure that moves daily.

Silver as a by-product, and where it is the main product

Worldwide, the USGS notes that silver is obtained primarily as a by-product from lead-zinc, copper and gold mines, in descending order of silver production, and that polymetallic deposits hold more than two-thirds of U.S. and world silver resources. Mexico is different from the world average: the World Silver Survey 2026 says North America has the highest concentration of primary silver operations, and about 132 Moz of its 223 Moz of 2025 mine output (roughly 59%) came from primary silver mines. Peñasquito also produces gold, lead and zinc; Buenavista is a copper mine; Charcas, San Martín and Santa Bárbara mine lead, zinc and copper, with silver recovered alongside. Fresnillo plc, which calls itself the world’s largest primary silver producer, runs the silver-led mines in Zacatecas, and La Colorada, San Dimas, Guanaceví and Cerro Los Gatos are also mainly silver operations.

That matters for anyone reading a company’s results. A mine’s silver output moves with the grade of whatever metal pays the bills, and unit costs are often reported net of by-product credits. When you compare mines, check whether silver is the first, second or third metal by value.

Estimate what a mine’s silver is worth

Published production figures can be turned into a rough revenue estimate. The calculator below takes ore milled per day, operating days, silver head grade, recovery and your own price, and shows the ounces recovered and the gross value. It ignores by-products, smelter terms, royalties and taxes, so treat the result as an order of magnitude, not a valuation.

Screening a Mexican silver licence with satellite imagery

For licence owners and consultants, the practical question is which ground deserves drilling money. Satellite imagery can screen a concession boundary for altered, iron-stained or clay-rich rock, structures and old workings before anyone drives to site; the result is a set of exploration targets, not a resource estimate. Farmonaut works from a KML or KMZ boundary and covers silver among its detectable minerals. If you hold or are buying a Mexican concession, you can read how satellite mineral detection works or send a short query about your area. Always confirm concession status and surface rights with the Mexican authorities and local counsel before relying on any desktop screen.

▶ Introduces Farmonaut Mining Pro and how satellite-based mineral screening is set up for a project area. · 4:56

Mexican silver companies and related guides

If you came for the owners rather than the places, the full list with exchanges and assets is in our guide to Mexican silver mining companies. For the global ranking of countries, see which country mines the most silver, and for the neighbour to the north, silver miners in Canada: mines, owners and output.

Frequently asked questions

Where are the silver mines in Mexico?

Mostly in Zacatecas, Chihuahua, Durango and Sonora, with smaller producers in San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, Coahuila, Guerrero, the State of Mexico, Oaxaca, Jalisco and Sinaloa. Zacatecas alone produced 41.8% of national silver in 2025 (Camimex, from INEGI data).

Which Mexican state produces the most silver?

Zacatecas, with 41.8% of 2025 output, followed by Chihuahua at 18.3%, Durango at 17.3% and Sonora at 13.3% (Camimex, 2026).

What is the largest silver mine in Mexico?

Peñasquito in Zacatecas, owned by Newmont, with 28.0 Moz of silver in 2025. It ranks second in the world for silver, after KGHM’s consolidated copper operations in Poland (World Silver Survey 2026).

Where is the Zacatecas mine, and who owns it?

There is no single Zacatecas mine. The state’s main operations are Peñasquito (Newmont) in the north-east, the Fresnillo, Saucito and Juanicipio mines around the town of Fresnillo (Fresnillo plc, with Pan American Silver holding 44% of Juanicipio), and La Colorada (Pan American Silver). El Edén in the city of Zacatecas is a historic mine that now runs tours.

Can you visit a silver mine in Zacatecas?

Yes. The El Edén mine in Zacatecas city offers guided tours with a mine-cart ride and a museum of rocks and minerals, according to Visit Mexico. Check the current opening hours with the operator before you go.

How much silver does Mexico produce?

The World Silver Survey 2026 puts 2025 output at 172.9 Moz (5,378 tonnes), Camimex at 168.2 Moz and the USGS at an estimated 6,300 tonnes. The figures differ in method; all rank Mexico first.

Is Mexico still the world’s top silver producer?

Yes for 2025. Mexico produced 172.9 Moz against 130.6 Moz in Peru and 112.8 Moz in China, although Mexican output has fallen three years running and Peru is growing (World Silver Survey 2026).

Who owns the biggest silver mines in Mexico?

Newmont (Peñasquito), Fresnillo plc (Saucito, Fresnillo, San Julián and 56% of Juanicipio), Pan American Silver (44% of Juanicipio and all of La Colorada), First Majestic (70% of Cerro Los Gatos), Southern Copper (Buenavista and the IMMSA mines) and Coeur Mining (Palmarejo).

Where is silver mined in the US?

Alaska is the leading silver-producing state, followed by Nevada. The USGS reports about 1,100 tonnes of US mine production in 2025 from 4 silver mines and 31 base- and precious-metal operations that recover silver as a by-product, across 12 states (Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026).

Where else in the world do they mine silver?

After Mexico, the largest producers in 2025 were Peru (130.6 Moz), China (112.8 Moz), Russia (56.0 Moz) and Bolivia (49.9 Moz), per the World Silver Survey 2026. Our guide to the countries that mine the most silver goes through them.

Can I see Mexico’s silver mines on a map?

The Servicio Geológico Mexicano’s GeoInfoMex data bank offers geological and mining map layers. Mine locations by state are in the tables on this page.