Silver and gold producer Fresnillo (FRES) is comfortably the best performing share in the FTSE 100 so far in 2025.

In one sense this is unsurprising given the unprecedented strength in precious metals prices so far this year. However, the Mexico-focused company’s latest update showed the company is making significant operational progress too.

The share price received its latest bump as management lifted their gold production forecast for the year alongside its first-half results (5 August).

For the six months running to 30 June, Fresnillo posted a 16% increase in gold output to 314,000 ounces, supported by improvements on the ground at its Herradura mine.

Silver output was down 12% thanks to the planned closure of the San Julián DOB mine and lower grades at several sites. The company also demonstrated a tight leash on costs and generated strong free cash flow which underpinned a big increase in the dividend from $0.064 to $0.208.

Berenberg forecasts the company could be sitting on $2.2 billion in cash by the end of the year.

Analyst Richard Hatch comments: ‘We have gleaned from management’s comments that it is not focusing on large-scale M&A at this point, instead choosing to focus on its brownfield and greenfield development projects, which all feeds into our view that Fresnillo could once again surprise to the upside from a shareholder-returns basis.’

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