Show Notes
Interview with Lon Shaver, President of Silvercorp Metals Inc. Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/silvercorp-metals-tsxsvm-undervalued-investment-series-with-lon-shaver-10671 Recording date: 29th September 2026 Silvercorp Metals Inc. (TSX:SVM, NYSE American:SVM) has spent years as a profitable silver producer in China whose valuation reflected the market's discomfort with single-jurisdiction exposure. That is changing. The company is now building two mines outside China, and President Lon Shaver believes the resulting multi-jurisdictional profile can change how investors view the business. A fatal accident at a coal mine elsewhere in China prompted a national safety review after an investigation found criminal negligence by mine management and complicity by some local officials. Silvercorp proactively shut its mines to conduct an internal review. Ying restarted and ran at about 60% of targeted throughput in August, rising to close to 90-100% by the end of September. Shaver called it a one-time event and declined to update guidance. Strong zinc prices and improved zinc treatment and refining charges should help offset lost output. These conditions reflect lost lead-zinc production in China that has left smelters short of concentrate. All production is sold domestically in RMB, which has strengthened against the US dollar. The first growth asset is El Domo, a copper-gold project in Ecuador. Construction is in its final push toward July 2027 commissioning. Two unusually wet rainy seasons have consumed some schedule slack, but contractors capable of deploying large crews have kept the target alive. The mill equipment is in transit. Shaver estimates El Domo will add about $200 million in annual revenue, a little under half from copper, compared with a Chinese run-rate he put at about $550 million. The capital cost is $284 million. Wheaton Precious Metals is providing a $175 million stream, about half of which has been drawn. Shaver cited a two-to-three-year payback at $3,350/oz gold and $5/lb copper. The second growth asset is in Kyrgyzstan. Silvercorp paid an effective $150 million for a 70% controlling interest in a resource of around 6 million ounces of gold. The asset was previously advanced by London-based Chaarat Gold, which spent heavily before its lenders foreclosed. Shaver views the asset as poorly marketed and misunderstood. After closing in January and regaining site access in May, Silvercorp has prepared heap leach pad and crushing plant areas, completed a camp and started pit stripping. First ore on the pads is targeted for later in 2027. Phase 1, budgeted by Shaver at about $160 million, has a roughly four-year life that he believes could be extended by two years or doubled. Its cash flow is intended to help fund Phase 2, previously scoped at 200,000-230,000 ounces a year for 18 years. Silvercorp's strategy is to pair lower entry prices in less contested jurisdictions with staged development that limits capital at risk. The company is also building a redeployable construction team and remains open to acquiring production. Key risks are execution across two simultaneous builds, weather in Ecuador, perceived jurisdictional risk in Kyrgyzstan and further regulatory change in China. Investors should watch Ying's return to full output, any revised guidance, the remaining Wheaton tranches and first gold in Kyrgyzstan. View Silvercorp's company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/silvercorp-metals Sign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com/subscribe
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Interview with Rupert Verco, Managing Director and CEO, Cobra Resources Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/cobra-resources-lsecobr-two-new-zones-widen-manna-hill-copper-footprint-in-south-australia-12288 Recording date: 22nd September 2026 Cobra Resources plc (LSE:COBR) has moved its Manna Hill Copper Project in South Australia from visual indications to laboratory-confirmed discoveries. The first assays from its slim-line RC programme confirm copper across three targets, and they add the most direct evidence yet for a porphyry system beneath the known Blue Rose skarn. The headline result came from Blue Rose West. Drillhole MHRC0029 returned 32m at 0.70% Cu and 0.07 g/T Au from 52m, including 12m at 1.13% Cu from 56m and 4m at 1.33% Cu from 78m. What sets this hole apart is its setting. It sits outside the mineralised skarn, in strongly potassic altered rock, and against a large magnetic anomaly about 600m beyond the 1.6km of defined Blue Rose strike. Managing Director and CEO Rupert Verco described it as a step change in potential scale, and said the anomaly is possibly the porphyry intrusion itself. He pointed to other elevated elements and the team's improved understanding of local sediments as reasons to read the potassium as alteration rather than a naturally potassium-rich host. The two new skarns add the near-surface side of the story. Shadow Rose, about 200m south of Blue Rose, returned 58m at 0.46% Cu and 0.15 g/T Au from only 12m, including 42m at 0.56% Cu and 10m at 1.09% Cu. Verco said there is potentially a 2km strike zone to test along trend. Neptune Rose, 500m north, returned 10m at 0.39% Cu from 104m. Three more holes across these targets are awaiting assays. Thirty-two holes and more than 2,800m have been drilled, and the programme has been extended to 64 holes. Verco indicated roughly six to ten holes on the porphyry target, 15 to 20 at Blue Rose and Shadow Rose, and the first drilling at Netley Hill in over 20 years. Petrophysical work on earlier core will guide the choice of geophysics, and a drone magnetic survey is planned. On depth and processing, Verco said earlier diamond drilling hit sulphides to around 320m to 350m, and the Blue Rose West interval is largely sulphide from around 50m. That shows primary mineralisation beneath the oxides. Metallurgical testwork will follow this drilling. Management expects the sulphides to suit conventional flotation, while oxide processing options are still to be assessed. The stated priority is scale first and metallurgy second. Cobra reports that the programme is fully funded, helped by recent warrant exercises. Over the next 12 months, however, spending is expected to split roughly 60/40 toward the company's rare earth project, where an ISR pilot or small-scale production study is planned and strategic offtake partnerships are being considered for funding. For investors, the case now rests on continuity and orientation. The key watch-items are the pending assays, the six holes into the magnetic body, Netley Hill results and any data that firms up true widths. The main risks are the absence of a resource, untested metallurgy and competition for capital from the rare earth asset. Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/cobra-resources Sign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com/subscribe
Interview with J.W. Dumont, President of Granada Gold Mine Recording date: 21st October 2026 Granada Gold Mine Inc. (TSXV:GGM) owns the past-producing Granada Gold Project near Rouyn-Noranda, Québec, alongside the Cadillac Break in the Abitibi gold belt. The property produced over 51,400 ounces from two shafts between 1930 and 1935 and was worked again by open pit in the 1990s. Despite this history and a large resource, the company has a market capitalisation of C$7.95 million and has struggled to carry its strategies through to completion. J.W. Dumont was appointed President on September 2026. He spent almost seven years in Côte d'Ivoire, where a mining-finance venture became an operating gold mine after its original model failed. At Granada, his mandate is a corporate turnaround built on capital discipline, more transparent communication and clearing legacy liabilities and reputational issues over the next three to 12 months. The board will be reshuffled, new strategic advisers added, and Dumont expects to become CEO if the market is receptive. The 2026 mineral resource estimate reports 890,600 ounces M&I at 1.73 g/t and 865,500 ounces Inferred at 1.34 g/t which are 64% and 90% higher than in 2022. The increase came from raising the gold price assumption to about US$4,270 per ounce and lowering cut-off grades, not from drilling. No holes have been drilled since 2022. Gold traded near US$4,166 per ounce as of October 2026, so the resource's sensitivity to lower prices is a live question. Dumont said the aim is a resource that holds up at multiple price levels, but that analysis has not been published. Drilling is the main lever. Granada applied for drill permits in October 2026 and plans infill to raise confidence in existing ounces, followed by extensions along strike and at depth. Dumont set an aspirational ceiling of 100,000 metres over two years, funded in tranches of 2 to 5 million. In practice he expects to start small. The scope, budget and schedule have not been announced. The exploration case is clear on paper. Some 87% of historical drilled metres sit within one kilometre of the Granada shafts. The 1.9 km between the Aukeko and Austin-Rouyn shafts has no drill holes, and only 48 holes pass 500 metres. One hole returned 107.8 g/t gold over 4 metres from 617 metres beneath the main pit, though Dumont deferred questions on true width and continuity to his technical team. Granada also holds optionality beyond drilling. A 2016 Certificate of Authorization covers four open pits. XRT ore sorting on a 500 kg sample delivered a 2.7-times grade uplift with 88% recovery, though the feed may not be representative. An Article 30 application for on-site gravity concentration remains in preparation, and DSO and toll milling are under evaluation with no agreement in place. For investors, the case rests on execution. The key watch-items are the drill permit decision, the size and pricing of financing at C$0.035 per share against 227.3 million shares outstanding, the board and CEO changes, and early drill results from the eastern trend and the deeper zones. Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/granada-gold-mine Sign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com/subscribe
Interview with Heye Daun, President & CEO of Koryx Copper Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/koryx-copper-tsxvkry-namibias-giant-copper-deposit-gets-a-major-upgrade-10548 Recording date: 20th October 2026 Koryx Copper S.A. (TSXV:KRY) is approaching the most important milestone in its turnaround of the Haib Copper Project in southern Namibia. President & CEO Heye Daun told Crux Investor during LME Week in London that the Pre-Feasibility Study will be published before the end of November 2026. He expects the results to be substantially better than the September 2025 PEA. Haib is a large Paleoproterozoic porphyry deposit with copper, molybdenum and gold, previously explored by Falconbridge, Rio Tinto and Teck. Daun’s team took control in 2024. The same group has a record of Namibian exits, including the $180 million sale of Auryx Gold to B2Gold in 2011 and the $390 million sale of Osino Resources to Yintai Gold in 2024. The March 2026 resource contains 744 million tonnes Indicated at 0.28% copper and 579 million tonnes Inferred at 0.24% copper. An infill programme of more than 55 kilometres has been completed to support the PFS. Daun cautioned that individual drill results can only move the average grade of such a large deposit so far. He pointed instead to higher-grade zones the mine plan can prioritise. The main technical change is the flowsheet. Heap leaching has been dropped from the base case after test work showed sulphide heap leaching was not viable at industrial scale. The PFS base case now crushes 48 Mtpa. Coarse particle flotation rejects about 12 Mtpa of low-grade gangue, leaving 36 Mtpa of higher-grade feed for a flotation circuit that includes Jameson cells. The PEA, by comparison, used a 28 Mtpa mill and 7 Mtpa of heap leaching. The PEA provides the baseline. It showed an after-tax NPV of $1.351 billion at 8% and $4.30 per pound copper, an IRR of 20.1%, development capital of $1.559 billion and a 3.9-year payback. It projected 92,000 tonnes per annum of payable copper over the first decade. Daun expects the PFS to show output well above 100,000 tonnes per annum, with capex between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. He said much of the capital estimate is already based on supplier quotes. Infrastructure risk has narrowed. Koryx has signed an MoA with NamPower for a 68-kilometre 220 kV grid connection, backed by solar and battery storage. It has also signed an MoU with NamWater for an Orange River supply scheme. Environmental applications were lodged in August and September 2026. Valuation is the core of the pitch. Koryx benchmarks itself at 0.24 times P/NAV, below a developer median of 0.28 times. It has about C$44.6 million in cash and no debt. Daun named project financing uncertainty as the largest barrier to a re-rating. He plans to address it in 2027 through financing certainty, technical endorsement, a strategic investor and broader institutional ownership. The development schedule points to a DFS and strategic options review in 2027, with first copper estimated in 2031. For investors, the near-term catalyst is the PFS itself. The longer-term test is whether Koryx can secure a credible funding partner for a multi-billion-dollar build. Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/koryx-copper Sign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com/subscribe
Interview with Peter Bures, Chairman & CEO, and Michael Gentile, Strategic Advisor, of Silver Crown Royalties Recording date: 18th October 2026 Silver Crown Royalties (CBOE:SCRI | OTCQX:SLCRF) is a silver-only royalty company built around byproduct silver that does not appear in resource or reserve statements. Many gold and copper mines produce modest silver volumes. Operators are paid for that silver at the refinery but have never reported it, often because the mines predate post-Bre-X disclosure standards or because the amounts are too small to justify qualified-person sign-off. Without a reported resource, no royalty can be bought on those ounces. Silver Crown’s approach is to create them. The process starts with the operator’s refinery and metals-trader statements, reviewed under NDA. They give a payable silver-to-gold ratio grounded in actual sales. The company prefers producing mines and restarts, where that history exists. A transaction now under evaluation, and not yet signed, shows the structure. A mine with a 2:1 silver-to-gold ratio producing 15,000-20,000 oz of gold implies 30,000-40,000 oz of silver, and Silver Crown would seek a 30,000 oz annual minimum. Strategic Advisor Michael Gentile said the contracts are take-or-pay, so gold revenue covers the obligation if silver output dips. The company’s presentation adds staged investments and registration on title, and puts the royalty’s impact at about 2% of project revenue. The operator’s motivation is valuation. CEO Peter Bures said producers trade at 1-2x sales while royalty companies trade at 20-25x. Gentile framed it in NAV terms: smaller producers trade near 0.4x NAV, Silver Crown near 1x, and Franco-Nevada at 2x. A producer selling silver to Silver Crown crystallizes value on a sliver of revenue at a far higher multiple. Producers can take cash or shares. Bures said counterparties that took equity saw $1M nameplate deals grow to $3-4M in market value as the stock re-rated. Cost of capital is the constraint Gentile says he helps address. He had long avoided junior royalty companies because their discounted shares make acquisitions dilutive and the majors outbid them for quality assets. Silver Crown avoids that auction by originating its own royalties. Gentile likened the setup to Franco-Nevada in the 1980s, financing at about 5% and writing 25% IRR deals with little competition. Bures said cash flow turned positive in the second quarter of 2026 and credited Gentile’s investment with the share re-rating. Silver Crown Royalties lists 6 closed royalties across Canada, Peru, Brazil and Ecuador. It also cites a combined pipeline IRR above 25% and more than 10 active discussions at any time. The company estimates 2026 deliveries of 42,888-61,888 oz versus about 22,000 oz in 2025, and targets a first dividend in 2026. Bures expects 25% average returns to attract competitors eventually. He argued no royalty company under $1B market cap is creating new royalties today. He is also discussing parallel royalties with larger peers, splitting metals in the same orebody, though nothing is signed. The main risks are scale, counterparty performance, dependence on private data, silver price exposure and dilution from equity-paid deals and warrants. Near-term markers are the 30,000 oz transaction closing, delivery growth against the 2026 estimate, and any signed partnership. View Silver Crown Royalties' company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/silver-crown-royalties Sign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com/subscribe
Interview with Jeremy Crozier, COO of Leviathan Metals Recording date: 18th October 2026 Leviathan Metals Corp. (TSXV:LVX) offers early-stage exposure to one of the more geologically predictable copper districts in Africa. Its 100%-owned Central Project sits on Botswana's Kalahari Copper Belt and shares a property boundary with MMG Limited's Khoemacau operations. Chief Operations Officer Jeremy Crozier said MMG acquired Khoemacau for $1.9 billion about two years ago and has since invested a further $900 million to double throughput. Those figures, as Crozier described them, frame the scale of the neighbouring system. The company's case rests on a simple geological rule. Every known copper deposit on the belt sits at the same stratigraphic position, especially where the rocks are folded into structural domes. Regional magnetic data pointed Leviathan to a dome directly south of the Khoemacau cluster, inside the same corridor that hosts the belt's known deposits. Central had never been drilled before the company started in June 2026. The first results support the model. A little over 6,000 metres of diamond core across 25 holes has intersected the target contact in 23 holes. Handheld XRF has detected copper in practically every hole. Lead and zinc, which typically accompany or surround copper in these systems, are also present. Crozier said this suggests the copper readings form part of a broader trend rather than isolated spot anomalies. The critical caveat is grade. XRF is spot data, it is incomplete and it does not provide grades. Most laboratory assays are still outstanding. Until they arrive, investors are assessing geological confirmation rather than economic mineralisation. The drilling has also sharpened the target. The fold is somewhat asymmetrical, and the northern limb has emerged as a structural system that the company views as a strong trap for copper. The 10,000-metre programme allows Leviathan to define and test targets in stages within the same campaign. Even so, current targeting covers only three or four kilometres of a 24-kilometre strike, leaving considerable ground for follow-up. Management has been measured on expectations. Crozier said he could not promise a resource or an economic study. The plan for 2027 is a faster drilling pace and more detailed exploration aimed at defining a coherent target. Jurisdiction is a supporting strength. Crozier said Botswana's Department of Mines did everything it said it would during the renewal of the main Central licence, which took place while Leviathan was negotiating the deal. The country offers established infrastructure, contractors and technical expertise, and Leviathan's crew is almost entirely Botswanan. Leviathan also has a second front in uranium. On October 19, 2026, it announced an RC and open-hole percussion programme of up to 2,500 metres at Serule and Foley. Serule adjoins Lotus Resources' Letlhakane project, and 2024 drilling by the former owner returned grades of 196 to 1,247 ppm U3O8 at depths of 65 to 130 metres. The near-term watch-list is clear. Investors should track laboratory assays from Central, the completion of the 10,000-metre programme, the definition of northern-limb targets and the first results from Serule and Foley. Assays will determine whether Central's geological resemblance to Khoemacau extends to grade. Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/leviathan-gold Sign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com/subscribe