Coeur Mining doubles Mexico exploration budget to $158M in company's largest-ever program

Coeur Mining (CDE) up 4.1% in Wednesday's trading after saying it is deploying US$158M in exploration across its Palmarejo and Las Chispas gold-silver operations in Mexico in 2026, double the previous year's spending and the largest program in the company's history.

Coeur (CDE) said the increased 2026 spending, which includes $27M and 83 km of drilling at Palmarejo and $24M and 119 km of drilling at Las Chispas, will support additional drilling at Palmarejo's underground deposits as well as expanded testing of satellite targets and regional prospects across the company's land package.

Exploration work is also accelerating at Las Chispas, which Coeur (CDE) acquired through last year's $1.7B acquisition of SilverCrest Metals last year and now views as another key platform for resource growth.

Palmarejo produced 6.5M oz of silver and 101K oz of gold in 2025, accounting for 36% of Coeur's (CDE) total silver production and 24% of gold output, and Las Chispas produced 5.1M oz of silver and 55K oz of gold last year.

Coeur (CDE) said the new program will raise its total exploration spending in Mexico to $340M over five years.