04:17 PM EDT, 03/16/2017 (MT Newswires) -- First Majestic Silver (FR.TO) said Thursday that its board of directors has approved the extension of its share repurchase program pursuant to a normal course issuer bid in the open market through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange or alternative Canadian market places over the next 12 months. Pursuant to the program, the company proposes to repurchase up to 8.25 million common shares of the company which represents 5% of the issued and outstanding shares of First Majestic as of March 10, 2017.

The notice provides that First Majestic may purchase the shares during the 12 month period commencing on March 21, 2017 and ending on or before March 20, 2018.

The company did not repurchase any shares for cancellation under its prior normal course issuer bid which commenced on March 17, 2016 and expired on March 16, 2017.

First Majestic is a mining company focused on silver production in Mexico and is aggressively pursuing the development of its existing mineral property assets. FR shares were little changed Thursday, down two cents to $10.55.