Latest / Kitco MINING / Sinda Maps Path to 20M Oz Silver Production by 2031 | Daniel Muñiz Quintanilla

Transcript

Sinda Maps Path to 20M Oz Silver Production by 2031 | Daniel Muñiz Quintanilla · Kitco MINING

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Heading Mexico's greatest silver rush.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to Kitco Mining with me, Paul Harris, here at the 2026 Mining Forum Americas.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm joined now by Daniel Munoz Quintanilla, executive chair of Cinder, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticket SIND.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Daniel, welcome to Kitco.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Paul.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me here.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Cinda is a name that has rapidly come onto the landscape and the investor consciousness following a very, very successful IPO in June.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: You raised$331 million for a wonderful silver initiative of Mexico's biggest silver rush taking place in Guanajuato.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this included a$95 million investment from Fresneo, the world's largest silver producer.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: The Guanajuato Sur District was virtually unknown, I think, before your IPO Fresneo has adjacent claims.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: They're finding similar things to what you're doing.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you, Paul.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for the opportunity to talk about Cinda.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Cinda means silver belt in the Ottoman language, which is the local language of the communities around our property.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: So Cindum is unique because, first of all, it has line of sight of 800 million ounces of silver equivalent.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: It is in a premier location of Mexico.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's the industrial heartland of Mexico.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't discovered before because it was hidden below 300 meters of clay.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Larry Buchanan, the head geo for the Electrum Group and one of the most renowned uh geologists in the world, had this PhD thesis that below clay could be precious metals.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Sindite only gold and silver, so purely electrum, which is uh why Tom got fascinated with this.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and again, we have an amazing grade.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: So the grade in the indicator grade is the highest among most of the silver deposits in the world.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: The inferred grade, it only starts at 386 mil um grams per ton.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we have the size, only starting, only have drilled 34% of the veins and 26% of the land package that we own.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and so far again, almost one billion ounces.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: So we think this is a multi mine district that's just starting.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: We're just scratching the surface.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: So this is what makes Cinda unique.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Location, size, grade, and I would tell you that the management team and the board of directors that have been able to put together its unparalleled in mining in Mexico.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you're a former Grupo Mexico executive, a long, long years, long trajectory of experience in Mexico, one of the world's biggest mining companies.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, take me back to the sort of beginning.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Dr.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Larry Buchanan's PhD thesis that there's uh he hypothesized that there's these silver veins below 300 meters of kaalin.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: How was it discovered?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um obviously Dr.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Buchanan's worked with uh Dr.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Kaplan for many, many years.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, did Dr.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Kaplan and the electron group say, here's some money, go and test it.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, absolutely.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh pretty much like that.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Larry Buchanan was living in Guanajuato, coincidentally, and his PhD thesis was based on this kind of deposits.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: So one of the head geos for Larry, called Magdalena Luna, a very good geo in Mexico, came to Larry and said, Dr.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Larry, this seems like the thesis you have, come and test this.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: So they went to the southern part of Guanajuato, this is where where Cinda is located today, and they drilled and they hit.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so Larry talks with Tom and he says, like, you know what, I think this is it.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: And look, and of course, Tom has been always a bull in silver and gold.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: He's made his fortunes uh by drilling, so he says, go ahead.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: And the virtue and why Cinda nobody knows about it, it's because he kept it private for a long time.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: And he started putting his own money, Electrons money, into it.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: They invested north of$100 million.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: They've drilled so far, or we've drilled now so far, 300 kilometers.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: So 300,000 meters of drill has happened in the property.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And he did what he did with his oil uh company, Lior, in Texas.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: What he did is started wildcatting.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of like focusing on one small part of the property, he started doing uh drilling around to understand really what there was in this whole district or property, only ours.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: For Zillo, we didn't, I mean, it was next door, that's a different, but with what we drill today, we have 800 million ounces of silver again, and uh it's not even included all the exploration targets that we're hitting, which we've been getting excellent results.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: There's a property between our two ore bodies called Don Diego, and we are developing and exploring that part, and it seems that our two ore bodies are connected through the Don Diego district.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so tell me a little bit more about the sort of geology.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, is this a sort of vein district?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what sort of extension?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: How long are these veins?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: How wide are these veins?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Potentially, how deep are these veins?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm not a geologist, but I've worked with them most of my career.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: So so I mean they are about 2.5 to 3 meters.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, for instance, we put a press release out last Monday where we got 24.5 kilos on 65 centimeters and 12.4 kilos on three-meter veins.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: So these are uh obviously a vein system that uh we're we're getting in these ore bodies.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I mean they're two and a half meters wide.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they are deep.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And for instance, we got SRK's report that for each vein we've drilled, they might be four blind veins below.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: So this is kind of like the system that we are just discovering.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's a new discovery in the world.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: And as Tom would have told you yesterday, this is the gift that keeps on giving.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: We keep, and that's why we have all these rigs turning.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because every time we're getting the best intercept so far was the one we we press released last Monday from the five-year campaign.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: So every time it gets better and better, and sky's the limit here.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: We're just starting.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you mentioned that the company was founded in uh 2012, but uh you've only just become a public company.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why was uh June 2026 the right time to do your IPO?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Excellent question.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, I've been working on this property for the last five years with Tom and with the electrum team.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: And again, we've drilled 300,000 meters, we've drilled we've invested 150 million dollars in drilling.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was the time, first of all, the market was there, and uh it also was the time the right time to move into uh drilling from underground, building the decline and building the mine.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why that that is the use of proceeds.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: It was only a primary offering.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: It was uh meant to be done as soon as possible, and we did the IPO in a very, I mean, in a very tough market.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you remember June this year, May, June this year, the markets were not very, very, very encouraging for an IPO, but it was amazing.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: We did the Testa Waters Road Show, Tom and I, and the team, and we even had the privilege of canceling the official road show and prize the deal given the demand that we were having from our investors.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we had all the support from the right shareholders at the right time.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: To what extent was the IPO oversubscribed?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Could you have raised much more money?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it was very much of oversubscribed.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: When you get over an IPO service subscription, you get into the allocable demand and you get into who are the right supporters and the right shareholders to have in your registry.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: So one of the virtues of my partnership with Electrum and with Tom Kaplan is that he has a big support of uh shareholders out there that uh he's delivered with during his track record and his 30 years in mining a lot of successes.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: So we had a lot of the shareholders that we wanted um backing us up, and I'm very grateful, and other new ones that that are coming into the story.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: But again, this is a new story, nobody knew about this.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a new discovery in the world of silver today.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now you mentioned your sort of targeting, you're looking very much at uh the uh production scenario.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the companies talked about initial production potentially in 2031, which isn't that far away.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: What work, studies, metallurgy do you need to complete to be able to get to that so to make that a reality?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect, excellent.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh first of all, we are this year, we are updating our mineral resource estimate by the end of the year.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: So all the drilling that I mentioned we've done so far, where we call phase one, so it's completed, and we are gonna update the resource estimate.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Next year, on on the back of the underground drilling, we're building the decline.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna start drilling from underground at the beginning of the year.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: So by next year's summer, we'll have another MRE update and a PEA.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's the immediate steps and catalysts for this story.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: So with the PEA, we're gonna keep on drilling, get the PFS and then the FS in order to start constructing in 2030 and producing in 2031.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: So we now have our fully permitted uh for this stage of the project.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: We have all the money we need, we have the management, and we are lesser focused on executing this program in order to create value for our shareholders.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what we're doing every day of our lives.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: So this is an aggressive time timeline, but very doable, we think.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: What is the sort of metallurgy like?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because uh silver projects, silver vein projects can be quite complex to process and get a good recovery from.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the the recoveries here have been great.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: We've done the metallurgy particularly in our Caracol deposit.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: So just again, we have two main ore bodies today in a resource estimate, which is Caracol and Agabes.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: All the metallurgy and the recoveries are excellent in Caracol.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: We are moving forward with that.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: And our strategy again is dual track.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna build the Caracol mine whilst develop the whole district.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: So both at the same time.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: So but the metallurgy couldn't be great.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: 98% recoveries.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, 98%.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: What is the annual production scale that uh you think that the project can sustain?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's early.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: We are it's early in the process, as I said, PE will come out, come until next summer.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: However, I'm happy to advance that we do have a model.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: We are valued, and with six analysts cover us today.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Morgan Stanley, Bemo Scotia, RBC, Citibank, and Canacord.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so so we do have a model.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: We are aiming to produce north of 20 million ounces of silver a year, and we are gonna ramp up until 6,000 tons per day.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: And this is we'll start with Caracol and Agave will follow.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: This is only on Agave and Caracol.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: We're not considering any of the Don Diego potential or the other land package potential.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: That that's our our our business model today.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: 20 million ounces from one project, that's absolutely massive.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, when you look at Fresnillo's three crown jewels, uh Fresneo, Saucito, and Juan Ecipio, and you put Cinda together.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna bore you with charts.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: I did already in the audience, but you'll see why Cinda is the next silver giant in the world.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, for sure in Mexico.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: It just stacks up next to them.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, let's talk more about Fresno.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned at the top, Fresneo invested$95 million to take a 5% stake in Cinda in the IPO.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in our sort of conversation prior to sort of coming on air, um, you mentioned that they've got the adjacent property, they've already found 380, 388 million ounces as well.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it looks like they're finding the similar um similar opportunity as you are.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: What's the nature of the relationship?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because if if they're finding similar, you mentioned that uh there's the possibility that uh your deposits connect.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um is there sort of joint development?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Is that a possibility in the future?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we'll thanks for let me give you the chance to clarify.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, our deposit and theirs will not connect.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well we'll connect might be our own Caracol and Agavis or bodies.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: They might connect through Don Diego.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we are currently experiencing.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: This is in our land package, in our 6,200 hectare land package that we currently have.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: But that that's Cinda.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: But on the neighbor property, so the next property adjacent to us, it's their property.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: They call it Wanajuato.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: So parallel.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: They're parallel.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: There are two different land packages, independent concessions, they don't connect.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: But but it's in the same district, and that's what Tom was referring to as the Wanajuato Silver Rush district.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you think about they are having 16 rigs, we have 18 rigs, we are next to each other, we are finding the same um mineralogy, geology, etc.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: So so this is just there's no other place in the world that silver, I mean, of course, silver, that this is happening.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: So the relationship couldn't be better.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we are long-standing friends.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean, again, in mining, we don't I don't see it as competitors.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: They're colleagues, they're partners.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: We have a tech committee together.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: We are trying to build the district together, we're sharing all information as much as we can.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's only a win-win situation that this part of the world is safe, has all the right infrastructure already.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Could it be better?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: And um and and kind of collaboratively work together.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Is there the it sounds like there's more of a strategic relationship with with Fresneo?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Is there the whilst you have separate projects, is would developing a joint milling processing operation make sense?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: Too early to tell.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: Too early to tell today.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it could make sense.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: The way we planned the project, the way our NAV and our CAPEX is geared towards building our own and um and having our all planned.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we haven't even started discussing the joint processing facility.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I mean, probably too early to have that discussion today.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: With them, I mean.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Cinder is a obviously a single asset, it's a new company, young, hungry.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine Cinda is going to be much more nimble than Fresneo.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so as things stand, it would seem that um you're perhaps on track to come into development and production uh in this district before they are.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, for sure, uh Cinda is very nimble and very agile.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: We've we've set up the company that way.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: So when I met Tom, he said, like, you have a white canvas, as you know, he's a Rembrandt collector.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: He said, You go ahead, we need to paint the rainbrand.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: And we've designed the company to be agile and nimble from the outset.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: We have what I think it's the best team in Mexico for sure.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: And the idea has been to be laser focused on executing, and we've done that.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: So recently in the conference, I had interviewed one of the most renowned uh uh, I mean, John Hathaway.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: He asked me and he said, Oh, but this is too early.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Yes, but we've been doing it as fast as nobody else has.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: And we got permits in seven months for drilling, nine permitted in nine months for building the decline and the portal, and we've drilled 300,000 meters so far.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what nimble and agile means to us.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, not cutting any corners, getting things right from the first time, but keep going, golden and laser focused.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, and if you ask me, um, today we had our 2031 production date, and I I think what I that I saw yesterday from my good friend and colleague Octavio Albidrez, that they're aiming around to 2032, 2032 or 2033 production.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure you probably should ask from them, but that's what I heard.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's what I heard in the conference.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, tell me a little bit more about the the decline that you plan to develop next year in the portal.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what what's the cost of that?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh presumably that will be, then you can use that for the mining scenario, and uh what sort of mining method do you think uh you'll be able to employ?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, Paul, thank you.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, the decline is gonna be in the caracole area again.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um that the idea is again to be able to drill from underground.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: The way we've engineered the decline is to start drilling three months after we start building it.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: So from that, you keep going all the way to nine kilometers.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Fully permitted again, it's important because not all declines and permits have been flowing so fast in my country.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it's fully permitted.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: We are starting at the beginning of the year, and this mining method we think is going to be long stop.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: We've been working with Gmining and with Ausenco and the top firms in the world in terms of engineering.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: We think it could be because the veins are steeping, very steep, which is very good.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we think we can uh we can do long stop with taupe mining.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh again, a bit early.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: We we don't have engineering yet, and the PA will come next summer.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm just trying to tell you what we've all the work that they've done so far.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's good to get an advanced view of what may be the case.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um Daniel, we've covered a lot of ground during our conversation.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we can end with uh a recap of some of the key catalysts that our viewers can expect to see from Cinder over the next 12 to 18 months.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you, Paul.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, so absolutely.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, you have line of sight of 800 million ounces.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: We need to drill, we need to improve the categorization of a resource.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: So today it's drilling.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: We have 400,000 meters or 400 kilometers goal for drilling from now on.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: This is the main use of proceeds of the IPO that we did just two months ago.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the end of June.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: And again, this is the right location, the right team, the right sponsors.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: If you think about Franco Navarra, Fresnillo, and um, and and obviously Tom Kaplan and the Electrum Group.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: And and again, we have a massive potential, only 36% of the Bane drill so far, and in 26% or 24% of the property.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: So that means immense potential.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: But thank you very much for the opportunity.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it certainly is a very exciting development.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Look forward to following it as as you progress.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Daniel Muniers, thank you very much for joining me today.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Paul.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Pleasure.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And once again, Cinder trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SIND.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: We have more to come from the 2026 Mining Forum Americas, so stay tuned and hit that subscribe button.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Paul Harris, and this is Kitco Mining.