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Sunshine Silver Doubles Mill Plan Ahead of 2028 Restart | Heather White · Kitco MINING

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Kitco Mining on-site coverage of Mining Forum Americas is presented by Metalla Royalty and Streaming.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Putting Iva the Ho's Silver Valley back on the map.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to Kitco Mining with me, Paul Harris, here at the 2026 Mining Forum Americas from Colorado Springs.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Joining me now is Heather White, CEO of Sunshine Silver Mining and Refining.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Heather, welcome to Kitco.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Bog.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's great to be here.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's great to have you back.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um you had uh one of the most successful IPOs, I would say, um, it was certainly of this year, but a very big one as well.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: You completed your IPO in June.
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  SPEAKER_02: You raised what 290 million US dollars.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's a massive amount of money.
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  SPEAKER_02: Um, talk us through that.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: How how hard was it to sort of raise that?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was uh an incredible uh milestone for the company.
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  SPEAKER_01: The the 310 million actually gross that we raised uh allows us to have that runway now to deliver on the key milestones to advance this mine back to production.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: And our target for that is late 2028.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that was a critical event for us to ensure we can deliver on that milestone.
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  SPEAKER_02: Now, the mine, of course, is the Sunshine Mine in Idaho Silver Valley, which is North America's highest grade primary silver resource.
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  SPEAKER_02: Um, Heather, what is the grade there and what makes this uh project so special?
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  SPEAKER_01: It absolutely is North America's highest grade uh silver resource.
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  SPEAKER_01: We have a saying in the mining business, Paul, that grade is king, and at sunshine we stand above the rest because of this ultra-high grade.
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  SPEAKER_01: Our average uh grade at sunshine is about a thousand grams per ton diluted.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: So we have 264 million ounces defined in the ground today, of which about 104 million ounces is in the indicated category at that 1,000 gram per ton grade.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then another 160 million ounces in the inferred category at about an average diluted grade of 776 grams per ton.
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  SPEAKER_01: If you like to work in OPT uh like I do, you know you're talking 25 to 30 ounce rock here, dilute it.
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  SPEAKER_01: So truly spectacular grades.
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  SPEAKER_02: Well, so it's not just the king, it's got you got the queen in the jacket.
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  SPEAKER_01: I got everything in there.
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  SPEAKER_01: I got the aces, I got it all, yeah.
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  SPEAKER_02: Comparatively speaking, I mean um other high-grade silver resources are perhaps what, 500 grams, half of what you have?
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  SPEAKER_01: Half, yeah.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: So we actually sit when you look at all the silver resources globally today, we're sitting at an average uh grade pro three times higher than the average grade globally, and two times higher than the average grades in the Silver Valley, which, you know, the Silver Valley is known for being the most one of the most US's most highly prolific silver producing district.
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  SPEAKER_01: 1.2 billion ounces of silver has come out of the Silver Valley and continues to be produced today, of which almost 400 million ounces came out of the Sunshine Mine alone.
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  SPEAKER_02: Now, one of the benefits of having exceptionally high grade, presumably, is that it gives you very low-cost mining economics.
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  SPEAKER_02: For every ton of ore you extract, it's got a lot of silver in there, so your cost per ounce, your all-in-sustaining cost per ounce, presumably is very low or forecast to be very low.
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  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely correct.
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  SPEAKER_01: I mean, with the ultra-high grades we have at Sunshine, we're able to deliver a very low all-in-sustaining cost at Sunshine,$18 an ounce.
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  SPEAKER_01: And that's on a silver-only basis.
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  SPEAKER_01: What you don't see in any of our resource statements, but has always been produced at Sunshine, is copper, is antimony and lead.
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  SPEAKER_01: They come along for the ride in our tetrahedrate mineralization at sunshine.
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  SPEAKER_01: So when you layer on uh the byproduct credits from copper, antimony, and lead, that$18 goes to something much less, you know, 12, 13 bucks an ounce.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: So really positioning us to have that uh huge advantage to return the mine and be able to ride through the cycles, you know, as silver goes up and down as it inevitably will.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: We will be able to run, you know, this is going to be a generational mine life, already 24 years on the books today.
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  SPEAKER_01: We're looking to grow the resource so we can support at least doubling that.
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  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_02: Now you mentioned uh you're looking at getting back into production in late 2028.
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  SPEAKER_02: You've got a feasibility study targeted for the first half of next year, and you've also got feasibility studies looking at a copper refinery restart.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: You mentioned antimony or antimony, you're looking at an antimony plant as well.
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  SPEAKER_02: Um, how do all these things sort of string together, come together?
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  SPEAKER_02: What's the plan there for those?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great question.
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  SPEAKER_01: So, base case, we would have a mine mill supported by that feasibility study in Q2 that would have us selling concentrates at the end of 2028.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: That would be a silver, very high grade, if not maybe the highest grade silver concentrate in the world, um, and a lead concentrate, so two concentrates.
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  SPEAKER_01: Alternatively, we can restart our fully permitted refining complex at Sunshine, and then have the ability to send our silver concentrate through an antimony refinery, extract the antimony.
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  SPEAKER_01: We would make marketable, saleable antimony, antimony trioxide, antimony metal.
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  SPEAKER_01: 35 million pounds a year is what we're looking at, which would include sunshine material as well as toll refining, potential third-party antimony concentrates.
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  SPEAKER_01: So uh the antimony refinery is critical for us in order to get the antimony out of the silver con, and then that would be the feed into our existing 10 million ounce name plate capacity silver refinery that sits on the property today.
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  SPEAKER_01: So we would bring that back to life, and that would then be we would be producing uh as a you know six to seven million ounces from sunshine, and then we have an additional couple million ounces that could be toll refining for external sources.
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  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: You mentioned uh or we mentioned the$310 million you raised with your IPO.
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  SPEAKER_02: Is that enough to get you through these feasibility studies and get the the mine back into production?
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  SPEAKER_01: It will be enough cash runway for us to get through the next um year, feasibility studies included, taking down our mill, completing our 50,000 meter infill drill program, all of those key milestones will be uh will be uh funded by the IPO, and we'll have you know over a hundred million plus dollars left uh beyond that.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: But it won't be sufficient enough uh capital to get us all the way to production.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: So there will be another financial investment decision that's done mid-year next year to support the final capital requirements uh for the production.
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  SPEAKER_02: And do you have um an estimate or an idea of what that quantum might be?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, very we're blessed all not only with high grade but very low initial capital cost requirements at Sunshine because there's an ex an immense amount of existing infrastructure already in place to the tune of we conservatively estimate at least$600 million of installed infrastructure in the ground to date.
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  SPEAKER_01: You know, we have a working shaft, we have a ramp system, we have a hoist that's just newly commissioned and installed in May of this year, miles and miles of underground development.
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  SPEAKER_01: So it's uh you know, a low capital lift in our PEA that we issued earlier this year was about a$290 million initial capital to get the mine mill complex up and running again.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm probably gonna try and uh conflate various different things together because uh you've obviously got very good backers, very successful IPO.
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  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, Tom Kaplan uh is the main driver behind the project, and uh um he's obviously capable of financing, if not all of it, but a large part of it.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: With the concentrate aspect you mentioned, um potentially that opens up the door of off-take financing with some of the people that would potentially buy the the concentrates as well, yeah.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, whether we uh we'll we'll be in a position to make a uh you know, ultimately decide on the strategy we take with the refining complex, uh Q1 of next year.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: That will really uh put us in a position to know which path we're on.
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  SPEAKER_01: Are we selling concentrates or are we going to refine our own concentrate and produce four or nine silver COMEX deliverable bars and final antimony products?
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  SPEAKER_01: So this is something we're evaluating in great detail over the course of the next uh you know four to six months.
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  SPEAKER_01: You know, and on the back of that, we will make a we'll make an informed decision.
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  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_02: Now you mentioned a moment ago about taking down the existing mill and potentially building a new mill.
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  SPEAKER_02: Um, what are some of the sort of key elements that will be involved in that decision?
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  SPEAKER_02: Presumably, if you're able to sort of make actual metal, you can uh obtain um greater price for for what you're producing.
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  SPEAKER_02: But what are some of the aspects involved in that decision?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: So the mill that's there now, well it's half a mill because half of it's gone, Paul.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the remaining part of that mill will be gone by the end of this year.
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  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, that mill, although it had done great service for Sunshine over the years, we want to build a larger modern uh mill on Sunshine.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: So the idea is take it, take the old mill down, which we'll have done shortly, and then we'll be in a position to build this.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're actually designing and planning to build a mill that's twice the size of our existing base case feasibility uh, excuse me, PEA.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Why are we doing that?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: So a thousand ten-a day mill was the base case plan.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: We're looking at building a 2,010-a day mill because the vision of uh increasing our production profile and our resource growth is immense at Sunshine.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: We have immense low-hanging fruit, new veins, we've already discovering them uh through our recent drilling, building out uh the upper country portion of the deposit, which sits above 1900 level and is accessed independently of the main jewel shaft.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: So having a ramping system that could not only add ounces but also add production throughput we consider to be quite a reasonable target to take to chase.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we are chasing it and we're going to invest the additional capital to build that larger size mill now in anticipation of a higher throughput in the years to come.
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  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_02: The we've we've mentioned a lot about the historical production in the Silver Valley, and so with taking down the existing mill, are there any historical, environmental, legacy issues that need to be dealt with or cleanup, things of that nature that uh um you know just correspond to you because of where you are and the assets you have?
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  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, great question.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh, because the area we we reside in has been an area of of uh you know a massive environmental cleanup back in the day.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: As part of the 2001 consent decree, uh Sunshine has no uh further liability on the environmental side.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I would add that actually our environmental stewardship uh is of the top-notch performance.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: We we have we're inspected quarterly, we have a perfect record on the environmental side.
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  SPEAKER_01: We will um we will look always to be the best corporate citizens on the environmental and I'd add safety side.
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  SPEAKER_01: We also have a perfect safety record at Sunshine.
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  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_01: Very proud of that.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's number one for us is safety, and obviously no remaining legacy issues on the environmental side, and all of our key permits to operate and get this mine back up and running are in hand.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what is allowing us this very fast track uh uh path back to production in 2028.
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  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_02: Now, silver's a critical mineral, copper's a critical mineral, and Times is a critical mineral, I think lead is as well.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um the US government is very keen on sponsoring, promoting the development of domestic supplies of these minerals.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um not just for military needs, but you know, project vault, things of that nature for industrial demand.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: To what extent or not uh can you count on, or are you counting on sort of government support or strategic support from the US government, potential funding support from the US government as you take your plans forward?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
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  SPEAKER_01: I mean like Sunshine's uniquely positioned to help solve the US's critical mineral supply chain, full stop.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: We did it before.
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  SPEAKER_01: We were the uh largest producer of antimony to support the war efforts during World War II.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: We process antimony not only from sunshine but from all of the surrounding mines in the area, and we're well positioned to do that again.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: So that's something obviously we'll continue to have talks with the uh government to let them know that we have this capability and also get their level of interest.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: To execute your plans, are there any other sort of permitting requirements that you need to comply with?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: The major permits uh obviously we have, as I said earlier, but we, you know, as an ongoing uh regulatory requirement, any new facilities we build, as an example, a new mill, we'll need a construction permit.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we'll need an air permit for that new facility.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: So these things uh we expect and we we build into our plan and our timelines, and we don't envision them to be any uh barrier to our our success on the schedule side of things.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_02: And as you advance your plans on that new mill design, um do you anticipate that that would be accepted into the sort of fast 41 process so you can get through that in a in a very prescribed timeline?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're gonna have a feasibility out uh with the design for this 2010 day mill here in the next uh what six months.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so so you know we're on we're keeping to our knitting and we're keeping on track to get this mine up and going in the timeline that we see we we want to have silver in 2028.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, uh no no plans at this point to be involved in the FAST 41.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Not to say that that's not possible, but uh we'll make that decision in mid-2027 when we make the final uh FID decision.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: I think uh what one of the things uh about uh the Silver Valley development, it's coming at a moment in time when there's definitely, very definitely, a mining renaissance in Idaho, not just in the north of the state where you are, but uh projects throughout the state.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: What do you think is is driving that?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh the support for mining, obviously in our case, I can't speak for the others, but in our case, we took a very I've been in mining 30 years, Paul.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I like to think you de-risk and you systematically approach an orb body like everyone's different.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: So at Sunshine, it's all about getting the resource right.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: We spent a lot of time on that.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: And we uh, you know, there's a hundred plus years of actual production history at Sunshine.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: So we were able to build for the first time in Sunshine's history uh a full 3D model that incorporated that a hundred years plus of data, and that's really unlocked massive value for us uh in terms of you know where will we find new veins, you know, the geological structure, the resource itself.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: So in our case, we view it as you need to get the resource right, de-risk, and then make a and then make a decision to move forward.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we've done here at Sunshine.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, the IPO uh supports our our vision in that area.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you you lead me nicely on to sort of my next question, uh Hedda.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: With the with that hundred years of data, building out a 3D geological model, um what's the exploration potential there?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: You you've spoken about the you've got masses of silver in resources uh and reserves already.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: How much more potentially is there?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm a mining engineer by background, so exploration sometimes is not always, I just want to go and produce and get the things going.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, Paul, I'm not without a word of a lie, the exploration potential at Sunshine, there's no other word other than immense.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Both in the six miles of strike length that we have around the core of the deposit.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: The old timers would uh honestly hot shot through a vein, they'd follow it and not explore laterally.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: We've also consolidated under uh one single ownership for the first time in Sunshine's history that six miles of strike, allowing us to really for the first time to look at this uh holistically from a geological perspective.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: And we see immense opportunity, a lot of low-hanging fruit for us to chase right in the shadow of our own headframe.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, if I could, on the broader exploration opportunity, we are the largest mineral rights holder in the Silver Valley with 38,000 acres.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now we we put out a press release last week.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: We expanded our land position, which was already immense, by another 60%.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: And we announced a 45,000 meter drill program to chase three high-priority targets that we identified last year in our year-long geological reconnaissance field program.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: So things are very exciting at Sunshine, uh, both on the mine side but also on the uh exploration side near mine and in the district.
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  SPEAKER_01: We view the district as a multi-mine potential opportunity.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: How are you sort of managing that?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because um you've got a lot of work programs underway for the feasibility studies, um, and then you're potentially going into um you know mine building and building a plant and but building a mill.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: All of these, you I think you said you might need an extra sort of 200-290 million dollars.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um undertaking exploration, 45,000 meters of drilling, obviously, that has a cost as well.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: So uh the the capital allocation, how are you sort of balancing that?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: Because uh oftentimes as companies go into development, they sort of cut back on the exploration because they want to focus all of the management time, all of the finance on getting that task completed.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're absolutely correct.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: And um the vision that's sunshine right up to the top of the house, you know, chairman of our board, we view we view our vision is to view this as a multi-mine district.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so we will deploy capital absolutely on exploration, uh, both in the district and in the near mine.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: We see that as being able to build out a longer-term mine here, not just 10 years, 20 years.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: We see this as a you know 50-plus year operation.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: This the sunshine's going to rise again, and it will be again the most iconic silver mine in the United States.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think Tom Kaplan commented something to this is he's gonna far outlast uh him and maybe even his geodry.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: I I have no doubt about that, including uh you know all of us.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's it's a truly beautiful deposit.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, congratulations on a successful IPO.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really looking forward to following the milestones as you knock them down.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: Heather White, thank you very much for joining me today.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Paul.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's great to have me here.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent, thank you.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: We have a lot more to come from the Mining Forum Americas from Colorado Springs, so stay tuned and hit that subscribe button.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Paul Harris, and this is KitCo Mining.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: KitCo Mining on-site coverage of Mining Forum Americas is presented by Metalla Royalty and streaming.