Weekly Metals Mining Rundown for Week Ending 9 May 2025 - Gold and Silver Metal Prices Rise, Alongside Most Gold and Silver Stocks

This past week’s top & bottom metal price and mining company peer group movers include:

This past week’s top 40 performing metals mining stocks (out of Peer Table’s 457) include (share price rounding errors apply, as sourced from Google Finance):

Coverage of metals mining company announcements incorporated into this week’s Peer Table (resource updates, economic studies, changes in attributable project ownership) include:

• 8 May 2025 - Former gold explorer - now gold developer - Western Exploration (TSXV:WEX) announced a PEA for its Doby George deposit at its flagship Aura project in Nevada. The study reported an after-tax NPV5% of US$70.7M from initial capex of $127.6M at gold price of US$2,150/oz (study says NPV increases to $211.2M at higher gold price of $3,000/oz (which is still well below spot price). WEX had traded down -11% (on 8 May) intraday TSX (vs. our 64-company gold developer peer group median performance of flat +0%) before closing the week (ending 9 May) down -20% (vs. gold developer peers up +5.5%) to an overall market cap/oz resource (including company-wide resources of 1.22 Moz which are 92% from gold, rest silver, at our estimated 3-month trailing average metal prices) of US$17/oz AuEq, which is now a widened gap of 35% our 64-company gold developer peer group median $26/oz AuEq. On P/NAV (market cap/post-tax NPV), at our recent spot gold price of US$3,022/oz, WEX trades at 0.14x - in between our gold developer peer group median 0.08x and mean 0.16x (at same recent spot gold price).

• 6 May 2025 - Lithium hard rock developer Lithium Ionic (TSXV:LTH) announced a resource update for its flagship 100%-owned Bandeira project in Brazil, which incorporated 60km of drilling between 2022 and 2024, and substantially grew the measured and indicated (M&I) share of resources to 22.3 Mt grading 1.34% lithium oxide (Li2O) for 0.615 Mt lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE). This should bode well for future reserves conversions and future improvements to project economics (since the 2024 FS). Overall project resources also grew slightly, resulting in overall company lithium resources (including 2 additional smaller resources from other projects) growing by ~5% to 2.12 Mt LCE. LTH stock traded down a slight -1.4% on 6 May following this announcement (vs. our 14-companmy lithium hard rock developer peer group median performance of flat +0%), before closing down another -1.4% Wednesday (7 May) vs. peer group median down -1.6%, and ultimately closing the week (ending 9 May) down -8.2% (vs. Li hard rock developer median flat +0%) to a LTH market cap/t resource of US$36/t LCE ($11/oz AuEq) - which is a 48% discount to our 14-stock lithium hard rock developer peer group median $69/t LCE ($20/oz AuEq).

• 6 May 2025 - Silver explorer Silver One Resources (TSXV:SVE) announced a resource estimate for its flagship Candelaria project in Nevada, which tightens and replaces the prior historic resources previously reported by the company. Total reported open pit resources are mostly in the measured and indicated (M&I) category with rather high silver grades (22Mt M&I grading 94 g/t Ag and 0.20 g/t Au for 66.75 Moz Ag and 0.14 Moz Au) plus a small inferred open pit resource (2.96 Mt inferred grading 68 g/t Ag and 0.18 g/t Au for 6.5 Moz Ag and 0.02 Moz Au). Total company resources including small shares of underground and low-grade stockpiles now stand at 103 Moz AgEq (96% from Ag) at our estimated 3-month trailing average metal prices. SVE stock traded up a solid 15% (on 6 May) following this news (vs. our 19-company silver explorer peer group median +3.7%), before closing the week up+23% (vs. peer group median +3.1%) to a market cap/oz resource of $0.51/oz AgEq ($47/oz AuEq) - just a slight premium to silver explorer group mean of $0.46/oz ($43/oz AuEq) and median $0.29/oz AgEq ($27/oz AuEq), which appears justified for this advanced stage exploration project at the past-producing Candelaria mine (which the company says had been one of the highest grade silver producers in the state of Nevada, averaging 1,200 g/t AgEq from high-grade veining between the mid-1800s and mid-1900s) that should continue to grow including from more drilling set to resume later this year, which could pave the way for a PEA demonstrating solid economics from this relatively high-grade silver open pit project.

• 5 May 2025 - Copper developer New World Resources (ASX:NWC) announced a resource update for its 100%-owned Antler Copper project in Arizona, USA, following a successful exploration drilling program and further exploration review. The update grew project resources by 25% to a reported 14 Mt @ 3.81 % CuEq (1.78% Cu, 4.27% Zn, 0.89% Pb, 33.66 g/t Ag, 0.33 g/t Au), which were 88% in the measured and indicated categories which paves the way nicely for the upcoming and ongoing Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS). NWC stock and its overall 1.2 Blbs CuEq resource (at our estimated 3-month trailing average metal prices) traded down some -3.6% on 5 May following this news (vs. 31-company Cu developer peer group median’s flat +0%) before trading up some +3.7% on 6 May (vs. peer group median flat +0%), and ultimately closing the week (ending 9 May) flat +0% (in-line with peer group median performance of flat +0%) to a market cap/lb resource of US$0.06/lb CuEq ($38/oz AuEq) - which is near the upper quartile range of our 31-company Cu developer peer group, which appears well justified for this high-grade, nearly fully permitted, PFS-stage copper project in the established copper-producing jurisdiction of Arizona (especially in the current backdrop of strong support for domestic copper production from the Trump Administration). And on P/NAV (market cap/post-tax NPV according to company’s PFS), NWC trades near the middle of the pack at a P/NAV of 0.29x (at our Reference Copper price of $3.5/lb) - in between peer group median 0.18x and mean 0.41x.

• 5 May 2025 - Gold developer Barton Gold Holdings (ASX:BGD) announced an Optimized Scoping Study (OSS) for its flagship Tunkilla project in Australia. The study resulted in lower initial capex of only A$399M (vs 2024 initial scoping study’s A$434M), with conservatively designed open pit slopes optimized for a gold price of only A$3,500/oz (vs. current ~A$5,000/oz). The company’s reported pre-tax NPV7.5 at base case A$4,000/oz gold price was A$781M (for a solid NPV/capex ratio of 2.0). The study appears to rely on a recently updated (and tightened) resource estimate as well as updated/tightened cost estimates. And although economics worsened slightly from the old 2024 initial (at apples-to-apples metal pricing according to sensitivities provided), this new study appears to pave the way for the upcoming PFS (for which fewer to no negative surprises can now be expected). BGD stock traded up +6.5% (on 5 May) following this news (vs. our 64-company gold developer peer group median performance of +1.1%), before trading up another +3.0% on 6 May (vs. peer group median +2.0%), leading to a weekly performance of +19% (vs. peer group median +5.8%) to a market cap/oz resource of US$45/oz AuEq (in between gold developer group median $29/oz and mean $59/oz) and to a P/NAV (market cap/post-tax NPV) of 0.14x (between group median 0.08x and mean 0.16x) - both at our estimated 3-month trailing gold price of US$3,022/oz, and based on the results of this 2025 OSS & the sensitivity analysis provided in it (assuming BGD’s post-tax NPV is 70% of pre-tax NPV, for peer comparison purposes).

• 5 May 2025 - Gold explorer Turaco Gold (ASX:TCG) announced an update resource estimate for its flagship Afema project in Cote d’Ivoire, representing a 40% to 2024 maiden resource at a higher gold grade (now 90.8 Mt @1.2 g/t Au). TCG stock traded up +4.8% (on 5 May) following this news (vs. our 80-stock gold explorer peer group median performance of flat +0%) before trading up another +2.3% on 6 May (vs. peer median flat +0%), before closing the week up +7.1% vs. peer group median +2.8%, to a market cap/oz resource of US$73/oz AuEq (vs. gold explorer peer mean US$58/oz and median $23/oz) - a premium that appears justified for this large (on of largest undeveloped deposits in West Africa) and relatively high-grade deposit (for open pits) for which the company expects another resource update by yearend and a PFS already by H1/2026.

• 5 May 2025 - Former nickel explorer, now nickel developer, EV Nickel (TSXV:EVNI) announced a PEA for its flagship, 100%-owned Carlang A project in Ontario. EVNI stock (and its lower grade resources of 510 Mt indicated @ 0.25% Ni + Co and Fe credits and 497Mt inferred @ 0.23% Ni + Co and Fe credits for a combined (large-scale) 5.7 Blbs NiEq (93% from Ni, 7% from Co, excluding Fe, at our estimated 3-month trailing average metal prices) traded up +2.1% on 5 May following this news (in-line with our 15-company nickel developer peer group median performance of +2.1%), before closing the week down -12.5% (vs. peer group median flat +0) to a market cap/lb resource of US$0.003/lb NiEq ($1.22/lb AuEq), which is 92% below our nickel developer peer group median’s $0.04/lb NiEq ($16/oz AuEq). On P/NAV (market cap/post-tax NPV), EVNI trades at 0.01x, which is roughly 90% below nickel developer peer group median 0.09x (at our Reference nickel price of US$9.5/lb Ni, according to NPV sensitivity analysis provided by companies in economic studies).

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