Latest / Kitco MINING / New Pacific Advances Two Silver Projects as Bolivia Opens Up | Jalen Yuan

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New Pacific Advances Two Silver Projects as Bolivia Opens Up | Jalen Yuan · Kitco MINING

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Bolivia is coming back to the mining stage.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to Kitco Mining with me, Paul Harris, here at the 2026 Precious Metal Summit in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Joining me today is Jalen Yuan, president, sorry, CEO of New Pacific Minerals, which trades on the TSX under the ticker NUAG and on the NIC American under the ticker NEWP.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Jalen, welcome to Kitco.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Paul.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: I want to start off talking in general about Bolivia because it's been a long while, I think, since we've had uh a company on the show that's uh got active projects in Bolivia.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's been a lot of political changes in Bolivia recently.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I want to sort of dig into that and what that means for the mining sector.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the new Bolivian government has signalled um an openness to foreign investment in the mining sector.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um so let's start there.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: President Paz, he wants to open up the mining sector, he wants to get investment flowing.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that stalled investment in the past under previous governments were conditions such as having to have um the state mining company, Comibibol, as a partner, them having a majority stake in in um in projects, the the need to have contracts ratified by Congress, things of that nature.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: I understand President Paz wants to develop and implement a new mining code.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: So um where where are we in the state what is what's the state of affairs in Bolivia?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's um that's a very good question, Paul, to ask.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh Bolivia as a country and a region, uh we all know that it's abandoned for its natural resource, especially in precious metals such as uh gold and silver, right?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: But it's also a jurisdiction that is uh seriously being underdeveloped for the past two decades for the obvious reasons that you just mentioned, right?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: A simple fact there is uh there has been no like meaning for uh new mine developments or even gets permitted in the past 20 or 25 years period.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: And with the new government that was in place from November last year, they're definitely uh moving towards a good direction, uh, more foreign investment friendly.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh President Paz and his Carbonate and uh some other uh government uh authorities uh going out openly saying that uh we need to bring in capital injections from all sources uh around the world to save our economy in Bolivia.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what they're doing.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're currently promoting new foreign investment laws, and they're in the middle of amending their existing mining laws.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we don't know the details yet because none of those bills have been uh uh approved by the National Assembly yet, or any details have been uh revealed to the public yet.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: But they are moving towards the right direction to sort of lose a bit of a centralized control a bit and to attract more quality foreign investments, bringing more monies into the country to solve the uh country's economy.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: And we are currently working with uh this new government at the moment to push forward both of our projects uh permitting process.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like we have a state of necessity bill uh that has already been presented and discussed in one round in the House of Representatives or House of Deputies in the Congress.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we're currently we'll have our newly signed AMC, administrative mining contract, presented again to the same National Assembly shortly, likely in October.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because we just signed the AMC with the government last month in August, as we disclosed in our news release.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have any idea of a sort of timeline on when the government may be able to implement changes, or is that still very much unknown at this moment in time?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh we should hear something material coming out of this government uh during the last quarter of this year.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we are certainly hoping for.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my understanding is the government already submitted a new foreign investment law, uh, framework law uh to the uh National Assembly for approval.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: And the Ministry of Mining is working on the amendments of uh uh their existing mining law at the moment, and hopefully they can present it to the Congress and the Senate for approval during the last quarter of this year.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I want to obviously talk to you about your sort of two projects, the Silver Sand Project in Potosi and Carangas in Oruro.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but before we get into that, we are here at an investor conference.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you about uh investor interest in Bolivia.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Are you getting much more inbound calls to say, you know, Bolivia is coming back?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us all about it.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: How can we invest?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, oh absolutely.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Bolivia has actually been a hot topic since uh since late 2025, I think.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Last year I was here for the same conference, uh, and that was uh shortly after I was appointed CEO for the company.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Even back then, I already feel the atmosphere is very different.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're attracting a lot of uh attention uh from like uh institutional investors and also from just retail investors.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody sort of started looking at Bolivia as a new region that is full of opportunities.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: Just as I mentioned, it's it is a region that is underdeveloped for the past 20 years.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: One of the main risks people seeing it uh is it is because of this reason, right?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: They don't think anything gets done in Bolivia.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: But also on the backside of the that coin, I mean, it represents a lot of uh opportunities for the same reason.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's why people start to eye on Bolivia as a region that uh could be good for the next five to ten years if policy uh is gonna be completely changed.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Very much so.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Under the mass government of Vivo Morales and his successors, there wasn't really any exploration or modern exploration, and that's what 20, 25 years.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, a lot of opportunity there.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about your projects.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: You recently published a preliminary economic assessment for the Carangas project in Oruro.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: What were some of the highlights of that PEA and what were some of the things you were most pleased with?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so the main reason we're doing uh this PEA update from the one that we did back in uh 2024 is obviously under this current commodity um market with uh gold and silver price trading at uh new high levels, we think the Karangus project, its economic potential should be much bigger than the one that we did in 2024, when silver was only at$24 and gold was uh around$1,000 per ounce.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Back then we took a very conservative approach to saying, okay, let's just uh focus on the uh uh like a beginning pit, just to tackle the upper zone silver like a resource.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: But was the new gold price trading at uh$4,000?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, we just have to be more both.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: Why didn't we just increase the production levels to also tackle the deep zone gold resource?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: And the results is that uh we managed to uh increase the MPV five times compared to the one that we did back in 2024.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um while the AfTAX MPV was around$500 million.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: But after this new PEA update, our new MPV is uh$2.6 billion, and with very reasonable increase in initial capaxes as well, because the old capax is around$300 million.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh after the update,$650 million.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: So it's doubles double to CapEx, but five times MPV.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: What are your the next steps you're planning at Carrangus?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Are you looking to advance the feasibility study?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you mentioned also about converting the exploration licenses into sort of mining contracts.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so bring us up to date there about you know what the next steps for the project are going to be.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let's start with uh on the technical front.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we are currently actually just started another 30,000 meter drill program uh at the project level.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh two RICs were deployed since last week.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: This new 30,000 meter drill program is mainly infield drilling.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just trying to bring our resource, uh upgrade our resource from uh PEA level to uh FS level.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: We want to convert more inferred resources into indicated and measured categories.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's the main objective of the 30,000 meter drilling program.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: On the permitting front, as you mentioned, we're still in the middle of converting the exploration license uh to the uh administrative mining contract AMC.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: We actually successfully signed AMC with the current Bolivia government last month in August.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: What's remaining is to get this signed AMC uh rectified and approved by the National Assembly.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: A simple majority of 51% approval is needed in the National Assembly, and we're hoping to uh get it approved uh by the end of this year.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a timeline on that.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: Right after the rectification of uh AMC, we'll immediately start the application process of the next license, environmental license, EEIA process.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: So once we get both done, we'll be we're we'll be fully licensed for Karangus to build the mine.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: And timeline on that, uh we were thinking about another 12 to 18 months for the EIA process.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: So realistically, we're looking towards mid-2028 or uh last quarter of 2028 as the completion stage for all the permitting and the beginning stage of construction.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, thank you.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: As uh an aside there, the having to have the mining contracts signed and then approved by the National Assembly, that's obviously becomes quite uh um an extended, onerous process.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Does the current government intend to change that particular part of the structure so that the ministry signing the contracts is is enough?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's a very good question.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh the current government obviously they can still do things under the current like the established legal framework.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um and they are talking about uh whether they want to decentralize these processes a bit or not.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: But I guess that that that brings us back to the previous questions that we were we just talked about, right?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: The government is in the middle of implementing a series of changes uh towards approving foreign projects, foreign investments, uh, and within the legal framework of the mining law and those.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: But again, we don't at this point we don't know the details yet.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: And we certainly hope that uh certain processes can be simplified.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so the timeline and the the overall waiting period can be cut down in uh in a year or so, let's say.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: In terms of you know, previously companies needed to partner with Comibol.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Is is that still the case?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is that something that you will have to sort of deal with, potentially deal with?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh no, that's not the case anymore.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um previously, I think it's because most of the concessions were granted to Comibo in Comibo's hands.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's why any private company or foreign companies coming into the region want to do business, want to do exploration, they have to work with Comibo.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um but that's no longer the case anymore.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, you don't necessarily need to work with Comibo on any of the concessions that does not owned by them.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: But obviously, uh if if for particular concessions that are in COMEBO's possession, then you need to enter into like some sort of joint venture or other kind of arrangements with them.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Going back a few years, Silver Sand was the flagship project of New Pacific.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, with Carangus now getting to that updated PEA, the work you're doing, is Carrangus now taking this lead role in the company's portfolio?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I wouldn't say so yet.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Internally, we're treating both projects like equally important to us.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we are, frankly, that's what we're currently doing.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because both projects are in a very similar stage.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: They're both in the permitting stage and the last uh phase of permitting stage.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: All they need is an environmental license for both of these projects.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And internally, we're equally distributing our financial resource and the human resource to push these two projects permitting uh progress simultaneously.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: We have two uh local teams in place, one based in Potosi to handle the uh Silver Sand projects uh permitting uh matters, the other one based in Oruro Province, uh which is where Carangas Project is uh to handle Carangas matters.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have a centralized uh team in La Paz to oversee both.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how our arrangement is.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, a fair answer to that question is uh I'm not picking one over the other.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they're equally important to us.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: There will obviously become a point in time when you may have to what's that decision going to be based on?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: The one that gets to completes the process and gets to that investment decision first is the one you'll run with first?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um it all depends on how the detailed permitting work and progress are going to be.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: At the moment, it looks like uh uh Karangus moving forward on a faster track because Karangus secured the important social license.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's very important.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: We signed the community agreement with Karangas Communities back in uh February this year, and the community once again approved their support to the project by voting yes to the project during the PROL consultation process uh in July 2026.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, on the SilverSand side, we're still working with local communities uh to gain their support and to secure this so-called social license.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: But we're not too far away.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: We're currently in the middle of uh doing very meaningful negotiations with SilverSand local communities regarding signing of a long-term framework agreement in a very similar way as the one that we sign with the Karangus community.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we're hoping to get this done uh again by the end of this year.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's continue with uh Silver Sand.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um you've spoken about the EIA process, you've spoken about the communities.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: What about on the technical side of things?
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: What work are you undertaking there?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And given that with the Karangus, you updated the PEA to better reflect more current pricing, right?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Are you thinking of doing something similar with the the economic study you had on SilverSand?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um not much for SilverSan, because SilverSand as a project, technical-wise, it's very well defined.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: The mineral resource and those, it's very well defined by the existing PFS.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what's next is obviously we're gonna push it through a feasibility study once we start the application of the environmental license.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: So those go simultaneously.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: There are certain technical works that still need to be done, uh, such as the uh geotechnical drilling, hydrogeological drilling, but it's more related to detailed engineering of how to build the mine that we want.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: So on a technical front, yes, a feasibility study is coming for the Silver Sand project, but uh likely won't touch much on the existing resource and uh the mine plan and those things.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the main focus will be on the engineering side and the construction side.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: So in a relatively short period of time, you could be in a very envious position of having two projects to develop.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: So are you starting to think about how you're going to look to finance these developments?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of finance you'll take, what kind of financial package you'll put together?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's uh that's a fair question to answer.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um at the moment, uh financing is not really an issue for us as a company.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: We had a very good demand um from the market.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we can say is demand is higher than what we are willing to offer at the moment.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: And if you look at our shareholder structure, we have uh two long-term uh shareholders and strategic partners in Silvercorp and Pan American Silver.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Silvercorp holds 28% of our share.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, Pan American Silver holds between 11 to 12% of our share.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: So both our long-term strategic partners since uh the year of 2017 uh provided tremendous financial and technical support to us along the way, and we expect them to continue supporting us in a similar fashion.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: But when when when it comes the time that really matters, uh when good news comes that we get one or two of these projects fully permitted, then we need uh like 300 million to 500 million or even to a billion, let's say combined, um capex that's needed.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Then the uh financing options are really open.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about uh like uh convertible the ventures and those.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: But um long story short, we're not there yet, so that's not something that uh would uh cause me had a case at the moment.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but if we can get these mines permitted in the jurisdiction like Bolivia, I don't think financing these uh projects throughout construction will be any issue for us.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me a little bit more about the sort of the relationship with Silvercorp Medals?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned they have 28% ownership.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've spoken with the the management of Silvercorp a number of times.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: They've got a very aggressive growth trajectory ahead of them.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of that is in Latin America as well.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Is so is it's part of the thinking perhaps that as you get the the these projects ready to build, they may come in and say, okay, thank you very much.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we'll buy those off you, we want to add them into our portfolio.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right, that's uh that that's a very reasonable assumption uh and a very logical one, right?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and it's just not it doesn't just apply to silver, of course.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: Pan American Silver is another important strategic partner uh invested in us for the same reason.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: And there are other buyers uh out in the market that are constantly checking under the hood on us because when you look at a silver market, if you believe in silver as a commodity uh and a precious metal, it is a relatively small market.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: And uh quite frankly speaking, there aren't many quality assets and new assets on the market that are available, and we're so lucky to possess like two of those assets.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: So the interest is is out there.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: The challenging part is uh nobody wants to roll up their sleeves uh to do the actual like a permitting work in Bolivia at the moment, right?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: So everybody's eyeing on us to uh get the job done.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: Internally, our preference is to actually build these mines by ourselves, right?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's uh our preference.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, not gonna lie on that.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: But when the time is right, when there is a proper offer comes in, we have to address it properly.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: And in the end, it's uh it's a board and a shareholders' decision.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, fair enough.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: We have covered a lot of ground, Jalen.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe we can end by recapping what you think will be some of the key catalysts that our viewers should watch out for from the company over the next 12 to 18 months.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'll start with the easy one.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, as I mentioned, we just started our 30,000 meter drill program at Karangas.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we expect to release uh the drilling results in batches, uh different batches throughout uh the end of uh 2026 and likely uh uh a period of time in 2027.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: And the remaining 2026, I would say that uh people should eye in on our permitting uh progress at the Karangus project level, uh, meaning the approval uh in the National Assembly for the State of Necessity Bill and also our AMC within the uh national Zambi.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: On the Silver Sand front, we're hoping to uh get the social license secured with the signing of agreements with uh Silversand local communities.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's another big milestone thing that for investors to keep an eye on, and we're hoping to do it before the end of uh 2026, if not uh first quarter in 2027.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: Then the rest go from there.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you very much.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, new Pacific Metals trades on the TSX under the ticker N U A G and on the Nicy American under the ticker NEWP.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Jalen Juan, thank you very much for joining me this afternoon.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, thanks a lot, Pa.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: We have a lot more to come from the 2026 Precious Metal Summit here in Beaver Creek, so stay tuned and hit that subscribe button.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Paul Harris, and this is Kiko Mining.