AbraSilver's definitive feasibility study turns Diablillos into a build decision

AbraSilver published the definitive feasibility study (DFS — the final technical and economic blueprint a mine gets financed on) for its Diablillos silver-gold project in northwest Argentina on June 22, and CEO John Miniotis treats it as the company's dividing line. The study, he says, "officially transitions us from being a high-quality explorer" into development. He points out how few large primary silver projects anywhere can pair a finished feasibility study with approved permits and Argentina's RIGI approval, the country's incentive regime for large investments. One permit is still pending in form: Salta's environmental approval is in hand, and the final written resolution from Catamarca province is, in his words, due "any day."

## What the study contains

The DFS covers phase one only, as Miniotis explains: a 9,000-tonne-per-day operation in which ore is milled and processed in tanks (a tank leach) rather than stacked on pads. No heap-leach tonnage is included. The mine plan runs to what he describes as a 24-year life, up from 14 years in the pre-feasibility study released in late 2024, because the resource has grown since. In the first years of full production he expects more than 20 million ounces of silver-equivalent output annually (AgEq — a single ounces figure that converts the gold byproduct into silver terms). He argues that scale would make Diablillos the largest primary silver mine in the world, noting that today's largest primary silver producers make less than 20 million ounces a year across multiple mines.

## First reserves, and a wide conversion

For the first time, Diablillos now carries proven and probable reserves — the drilled, tested, and economic portion of a resource that a mine plan can schedule. Miniotis says the tank-leach portion converted at an unusually high rate: by his accounting, roughly 365 million silver-equivalent ounces out of about 390 million measured and indicated ounces made the cut, including more than 180 million ounces of silver, all in oxides. The reserve estimate uses conservative prices — $29.50 per ounce of silver and $2,800 for gold — and he adds that at spot prices, with silver above $60 at the time of recording, the reserve would sit "well north of 400 million" silver-equivalent ounces.

## The economics, as the CEO frames them

Miniotis cites an after-tax net present value (NPV — what future cash flows are worth in today's money after discounting) of about CAD $4.2 billion, an after-tax internal rate of return (IRR — the annualized return the project earns on capital invested) above 40%, and payback (how fast the initial capital comes back out of cash flow) in under two years, on roughly $720 million of initial capital. He calls the ratio of NPV to initial capital — 4.2 times — the figure that stands out from his two decades reviewing projects in corporate development.

## The growth levers the study leaves out

The DFS is, in his words, "the floor, it's not the ceiling." Within days of the interview the company expects to publish a preliminary economic assessment (a first-pass economics study) for a heap leach — stacking below-cutoff ore that is currently classed as waste, much of it lower-grade gold, and dripping solution through it to recover metal cheaply. Internal studies also model lifting throughput from 9,000 to between 13,000 and 18,000 tonnes per day, because discounted cash flow gives little credit for years beyond the 15th of a 24-year plan. Phase six drilling, the host notes, keeps adding gold, silver, and copper across the district.

## The path to a build decision

Construction can start once financing lands. Miniotis says financing talks have run for several months, an announcement is targeted for late in the third quarter or early in the fourth, and a final investment decision (the board-level go-ahead) is targeted for the second quarter of 2027. The $720 million initial bill, he says, is "very easily financeable" through some mix of equity, debt, and possibly a silver stream, while keeping 100% ownership — and he rules out a sale at this stage. Early works are already moving: a camp for up to 1,600 workers, orders for long-lead equipment, and selection of the EPCM contractor (the engineering firm that manages construction). Hiring, he adds, is easier than expected because little else is being built in Salta and Catamarca, and grid power — assumed in the study as rented diesel generators before a connection around year three — should cut costs when it arrives.

## The valuation argument, and its caveats

Miniotis's pitch is that the market has not repriced the study: about CAD $13 a share against roughly CAD $26 of after-tax NPV per share on his math — a 0.5 times net asset value (NAV — the per-share worth of a company's projects) multiple that trails the one to two times NAV range he says senior silver producers command. He argues a rerating toward 1.5 times NAV would imply well over CAD $35 a share. Those are his figures and his projection, not a forecast, and the interview is friendly ground: host Shad Markowitz discloses he owns AbraSilver shares. The near-term test is execution — the heap-leach PEA, the financing package and its terms, and the Catamarca signature are the milestones that will show whether the rerating case holds.