Keith Neumeier
Founder, President & CEO | First Majestic Silver Corp. | Pure-play silver producer with operations in Mexico
"Building First Majestic Silver into one of the world's largest publicly traded pure-play silver mining companies"
Biography
Keith Neumeyer is the founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of First Majestic Silver Corp. (NYSE: AG, TSX: AG), one of the largest publicly traded pure-play silver mining companies in the world. For commodity investors, his views carry weight because the decisions made under his leadership — where to drill, which assets to buy, when to hedge — directly shape a meaningful slice of primary silver supply. He has run the company since founding it in 2002.
Neumeyer has been in the Canadian investment community since 1984, starting at national brokerage firms before moving into the resource sector. He helped assemble First Quantum Minerals, which grew into a major global copper producer, and served as a founding director of MAG Silver Corp. before launching First Majestic. Under his leadership, First Majestic acquired First Silver Reserve Inc. in 2006, scaled a portfolio of silver mines in Mexico, and expanded into a multi-mine primary silver producer that has reported annual production in the multi-million-ounce range — including a record 3.7 million silver ounces in a single quarter in 2025. He also founded First Mining Gold Corp. in 2015, where he serves as Chairman.
His investment lens is unapologetically silver-centric. Neumeyer has long argued that silver is structurally underpriced relative to its industrial demand and its monetary role, and he built First Majestic as a vehicle for investors who want direct leverage to the metal rather than to a diversified major. The operating playbook combines organic growth — drilling, resource expansion, and development at the Mexican assets — with deal-making, including the 2018 acquisition of Primero Mining that brought the San Dimas mine into the portfolio.
For an investor looking to follow a senior operator's read on the silver market, Neumeyer is one of the few public-company CEOs whose personal balance sheet and career are aligned with the metal itself. He remains a regular commentator on silver market structure, primary mine supply, and the outlook for the Mexican operations that drive First Majestic's production.
Videos (2)
Silver Prices Exploded. New Supply Never Came. | First Majestic
- Top takeaway Says the silver price is financing the junior space for the first time in a long time - a level of exploration funding not seen since 2004-2006.
- Puts a number on growth: passing the 50-million-ounce silver-equivalent threshold within the next 10 years through successful M&A, drilling, and mill expansions.
- Details two small mill expansions this year: Santa Elena from 3,200 to 3,500 tons per day and Los Gatos from 3,500 to 4,000 tons per day.
Silver's price surge has not created new mines: new projects need roughly 18 years from discovery to production, so supply cannot respond quickly. First Majestic's unchanged production generated $40 million in quarterly free cash flow at $32 silver and roughly $220-250 million a year later. Two Santa Elena discoveries hold over 90 million silver-equivalent ounces (all metals converted to silver ounces), with permits arriving 12-18 months early. Exploration beats acquisition: Santa Elena discovery ounces cost about $0.32 each, far below what developers charge for ounces in the ground. A $1.2 billion cash position funds 300,000-plus metres of drilling, mill expansions and the Jerritt Canyon restart — growth without acquisitions.
Keith Neumeyer, CEO of First Majestic Silver Corp. | Rule Symposium 2026: Rick Rule interviews
- Top takeaway The interviewee's core stance is that silver in the low $70s is a buy and triple-digit prices remain his target — he says he coined the phrase 'triple-digit silver' in 2012 and is acting on it by holding metal back from sales.
- He presents his business model as buying unloved, capital-starved Mexican assets and applying both intellectual and physical capital to turn them around.
- He says Mexican families and groups were essentially bankrupt and lining up to sell when he arrived in 2002, letting him buy mines that had been shut for a decade or more.
- He credits his long-time CEO Roman Davolov with assembling the trusted Mexican operating team he says made those cheap asset purchases possible.
- He describes his contrarian temperament — buying when people hate a sector — and admits he is good at picking bottoms but maybe not great at picking tops.
Keith Neumeier built First Majestic Silver by buying Mexican mines abandoned during downturns and reviving them with capital and trusted local management. His recurring pattern - First Quantum in copper, First Majestic in silver, First Mining Gold in gold - is entering out-of-favor sectors early. First Majestic keeps $938 million cash and 60 million ounces of gold and silver in its vaults rather than sell at prices it views as low. He screens management track records first, warning that the same mining deals resurface for decades, sometimes under new names. First Mining Gold shows the contrarian playbook: eight nearly bankrupt companies bought in 15 months during the 2014-2015 gold-sector downturn.
Key Works
Pure-play silver mining company founded in 2002; primary operations in Mexico; one of the largest publicly traded primary silver producers in the world.
Canadian gold-focused exploration and development company founded by Neumeyer, where he serves as Chairman.
Specializations
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