Jim McDonald

The Silver Bull Market Is Just Getting Started - Here’s Why

• Top takeaway His central call is that the silver bull market has only just started: he frames the December-to-February surge as the first spike of a long, multi-year bull market comparable to 2002-2012, and says the eventual base will sit far above the old $18-26 band, which is why he moved the parked Chihuahua projects forward once silver passed $30 in January.
• On the La Cigarra PEA he stresses the study is run at a $50/oz silver price he considers very conservative, and points to the 14-year mine life, average annual production of about 4.5 million ounces, roughly $332 million of capital including a large contingency, and an after-tax payback of just under two years.
• His next catalyst is a fall drill program of about 7,000 meters, budgeted within 10,000 meters for just over $3 million, to test the lightly drilled gap between the Sangrigoria and Las Carolinas pits inside the existing pit shell; he expects the answer by year end and a pre-feasibility study launched in 2027.
• On Columba he is running about 60,000 meters of expansion drilling aimed at pushing the resource toward 100 million ounces, and argues that number is not required because his in-house desktop studies may already show positive economics below it; the resource update is expected around the end of 2026 into early 2027.
• On risk and funding he says the company has been in Mexico for 25 years with an almost entirely Mexican staff and only works in areas he assesses as stable and safe, and that because Kootenay generates no revenue it must keep watching the market for its next financing even though about $34 million in cash covers both programs for at least 18 months.

Kootenay Silver now develops two Mexican silver projects after a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on La Cigarra showed $763 million after-tax NPV at $50 silver. AISC (All-In Sustaining Cost - what it really costs to produce an ounce) is forecast below $19, with payback under two years at La Cigarra. The guest argues silver is forming a new price band several times higher than the mid-$20s range it occupied for years. A 7,000-metre fall drill program targets the undrilled gap between two deposits, a low-cost path to 10 to 20 million more ounces by year end. Columba's high-grade inferred resource is being drilled toward 100 million ounces, funded by about $34 million in cash.