After five consecutive years of subdued activity, the global silver mining mergers and acquisitions (M&A) landscape accelerated sharply in 2024 and 2025.
Disclosed transaction values reached $14.3 billion over these two years, compared to a cumulative total of just $244 million in the preceding five years. While the number of deals increased, the surge in total value was driven by a few high-value transactions, with the six largest deals accounting for over 90% of the total. This M&A wave has primarily facilitated the consolidation of ownership over existing silver production capacity, rather than providing capital for new greenfield projects. Despite record-high industry margins and enhanced cash flow generation, capital continues to favor derisked, producing assets over greenfield exploration, resulting in a relatively muted response in silver supply to rising prices.
The initial phase of the M&A boom centered on consolidating a small group of low-cost, in-production silver mines in Mexico. Key transactions included First Majestic Silver acquiring Gatos Silver, which owns a 70% interest in the Cerro Los Gatos mine; Coeur Mining purchasing SilverCrest Metals and its recently commissioned Las Chispas mine; and Pan American Silver acquiring MAG Silver, including its 44% stake in the Juanicipio project. These deals collectively transferred ownership of approximately 18-21 million ounces of annual attributable silver production.
The acquired mines share several common characteristics: they are all in commercial production with high profit margins and significant brownfield exploration potential. Risks related to metallurgy, infrastructure, permitting, and production ramp-up have largely been resolved. Consequently, the acquirers purchased assets that had already transitioned from mineral resources to stable cash-flow-generating operations. Despite the scarcity and quality of these assets, the nominal premiums paid over the target companies' unaffected closing prices were not unusually high, ranging from 16% to 22%. This is partly due to the deal structures: all three transactions relied heavily on equity as consideration, allowing target company shareholders to continue sharing in the future benefits of the acquired mines, including exploration upside and value creation from operational integration and market re-rating. Former shareholders of Gatos Silver and SilverCrest Metals received significant stakes in First Majestic and Coeur Mining, respectively, making these deals more akin to strategic mergers than outright acquisitions. Using equity also helped bridge valuation gaps, allowing acquirers to avoid paying the full expected synergy value upfront.
The synergy sources varied across deals. For First Majestic's acquisition of Gatos Silver, the benefits included increased silver production and free cash flow generation, improved liquidity and balance sheet strength for the combined entity, and complementarity with its own Mexican underground operations offering local expertise and synergies. Coeur Mining's rationale for buying SilverCrest Metals was more focused on immediate free cash flow, balance sheet strengthening, and the potential for a higher market valuation from increased scale. In contrast, the direct mine-level synergies from Pan American Silver's acquisition of MAG Silver were more limited, as the Juanicipio mine is operated by Fresnillo. The value here came primarily from portfolio optimization and financial enhancement through the addition of low-cost production, mineral reserves, exploration potential, and free cash flow.
In 2025, silver miners increasingly used M&A to gain exposure to gold. Although total disclosed transaction value involving silver mining companies reached $11.3 billion, a significant portion does not represent increased exposure to silver production capacity. About $7 billion of this came from Coeur Mining's acquisition of New Gold, whose core assets are the Rainy River gold mine and the New Afton copper-gold mine. Similarly, Discovery Silver's acquisition of Newmont's Porcupine gold mine in January 2025 for up to $425 million transformed the company from a pure-play silver developer into a Canadian gold producer. In October 2025, Fresnillo agreed to acquire Probe Gold for approximately $560 million, adding a large gold development project in Canada and marking its first expansion outside the Americas. These transactions reflect a broader trend among silver miners to pivot towards gold exposure for reasons including quickly acquiring production and cash flow, scaling operations, or achieving geographic diversification.
Entering 2026, M&A activity continues but on a smaller scale and with a different character. Disclosed transaction values total approximately $590 million, with $352 million representing the upfront and deferred consideration paid by Orezone Gold to acquire Hecla Mining's Casa Berardi gold mine. Hecla's decision to sell gold assets and refocus on its core North American silver portfolio contrasts sharply with the strategies of Coeur Mining, Discovery Silver, and Fresnillo in 2025. Meanwhile, major silver-related deals in 2026 have largely involved idled or non-core assets, such as First Majestic's sale of the San Martin mine and Sierra Madre's acquisition of the Del Toro silver mine. The current focus of M&A activity is shifting towards portfolio optimization, redeveloping existing assets, consolidating junior miners, and targeted diversification. Producers remain clearly willing to pay a premium for mature, stable, cash-flow-generating mines, especially those with expansion potential. Consequently, recent M&A has concentrated on producing mines or projects with well-defined development paths, rather than early-stage exploration assets.
In 2025, operating cash flow for silver miners reached a record high, increasing by approximately $4.9 billion year-on-year. In contrast, capital expenditure rose by only about $1.2 billion, with the majority of incremental cash flow directed towards debt repayment, M&A, and enhancing shareholder returns. Record-high silver mining margins are not expected to translate quickly into rapid supply growth. Metals Focus forecasts that global mine silver supply will increase by approximately 123 million ounces over five years, but only about 40 million ounces of this growth will come from primary silver mines. Therefore, the recent M&A wave's focus has been more on value realization within the existing production landscape, and it has not altered the overall outlook for future mine supply of silver.
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