Silvercorp Metals on Cost Discipline, the Ying District's 17-Year Reserve Life, and a New Kyrgyzstan Gold Bet

## What Shaver Said About Silvercorp's Cost Position

Lon Shaver, president of Silvercorp Metals, joined the Sprott Money "Ask the Experts" segment in mid-August 2026 to walk through the company's setup. His main message: Silvercorp is a low-cost producer that is not exposed to the margin-squeeze worry hanging over the rest of the sector.

"We're blessed with low-cost operations," Shaver said. "We're producing silver at an all-in-sustaining cost. The last quarter, which was a bit of a bumpier quarter, was $18 all-in-sustaining per ounce of silver, none of our byproduct credits. For the year last year, it was just a bit over $14."

AISC (All-In Sustaining Cost) is the full per-ounce cost of producing silver — operating expenses, sustaining capital, and overhead included. Shaver is citing the AISC before subtracting byproduct credits from lead and other base metals, so the net cash cost is even lower.

Shaver pushed back on the idea that fuel or input inflation is a near-term risk for the company: "We're in a position here where we're making money and we're not worried about that cost structure." Where he does see risk is at the M&A level — buying a project modeled on $4,500 gold that turns expensive if gold slips to $3,500 — not on the operating side.

## The Ying Mining District and the 17-Year Reserve Life

Most of Silvercorp's silver production comes from the Ying Mining District in China, which Shaver says has been in production for 20 years across seven mines. The company has drilled aggressively there — Shaver noted that, at peak, Silvercorp has run up to 80 rigs across the district. A new technical report published a couple of months before the interview keeps a 17-year reserve life at the underground mine based on reserves only, with resources on top of that.

Shaver framed the company in plain terms: "What we're really talking about here is an existing profitable mine with expansion opportunities and a 17-year reserve life."

## The Kyrgyzstan Gold Pivot

The bigger news Shaver discussed is Silvercorp's January 2026 entry into a six-million-ounce gold project in Kyrgyzstan. The company closed the deal in January and got site access in mid-May. The asset is being developed in two phases:

- **Phase 1 (starter):** an open-pit heap-leach gold project that is already in construction. - **Phase 2 (the larger mine):** an 18-year project with a bigger production profile. Shaver said the company has launched the first of two drilling campaigns — 50,000 meters in this round, 60,000 in the next — with 16 rigs currently turning. The target is a PEA (an early-stage scoping study) in 2027 and a feasibility study in 2028. Cash flow from the starter project is meant to help fund the second mine.

The August 18 drill results Hemke referenced are from this Kyrgyzstan program. "We think that both in terms of the long intercepts that we've identified and hitting new structures, there's significant upside in the overall resource and reserve that project can have," Shaver said.

## Q1 Numbers and the Realized Silver Price

Shaver said the most recent fiscal quarter — the first quarter of the new fiscal year, ending in June — was "decent" and tracked to plan. Revenue was up 70% year over year, with silver contributing 77% of the revenue mix, making Silvercorp one of the cleaner primary-silver-mining exposures on the market.

The realized silver price for the quarter, net of smelter treatment charges, was about $69 per ounce. "That's a function of having a good product, which is a very high-grade lead concentrate with a high quantity of silver going to smelters that view it as a real juicy input for their feed," Shaver said.

He also flagged a temporary shutdown tied to mine-site improvements that the company expects will run through the rest of the quarter, after which the mines are expected to return to full production.

## Three Jurisdictions: China, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan

Shaver was explicit that Silvercorp is working to become "a bigger, more diversified company" with growth programs in China, Ecuador, and Kyrgyzstan. Asked about jurisdictional risk, he said the company underwrites each project individually — looking at central-government posture, provincial-level conditions, and community receptivity before committing capital.

"We've gone through so many years of drought in terms of industry spending and so much society resistance and government resistance towards mining," he said on the broader supply picture. "The amount of new production coming online is maybe the lowest ever for both gold and silver. And it's not like you can just go and drill a hole in the ground and start pulling it out over the course of six months."

## What the Sector Sell-Off Means for SVM Specifically

Hemke noted that SVM shares were down about 25% from February highs, alongside the broader mining-sector pullback. Shaver argued the sell-off is more about portfolio rotation — investors taking profits after a multi-year run and shifting speculative dollars into oil — than about Silvercorp-specific fundamentals.

He drew a sharp line between low-cost producers like Silvercorp and "real marginal producers with high cost structures": "Those companies will be the first to feel the pain" if commodity prices slip back. Shaver's view is that low-AISC producers are being wrongly lumped in with the marginal names in the recent drawdown.