Excellon Resources - Overview Of 4 PM Projects, Moving Flagship Mallay Silver Mine From Development Towards Production
Shawn Howarth, President and CEO of Excellon Resources, joins me to overview their 4 precious metals projects, with an emphasis on the recent closing in May of the acquisition of the past-producing Mallay Silver Mine, with plans to move this mine back into production by Q2 of 2026. We then review the large exploration potential across their other 3 projects: Tres Cerros, Kilgore, and Silver City.
We kick things off having Shawn highlight why the company updated their project profile to focus on the jurisdiction of the Cerro de Pasco area of Peru, when acquiring both the Mallay Silver Mine and Tres Cerros exploration projects in the transaction announced in October of 2024, and closed on in May of this year. Excellon has been a producing silver company in the past, and the management team and board had solid in-county experience in Peru, this transaction seemed like a perfect fit for taking the company to the next level.
Mallay was built and operated by Buenaventura from 2012 to 2018, with US$115 million of historical investment. The mine went into care and maintenance in 2018 due to low silver prices (~US$16.00 per ounce) and a change in strategic priorities at Buenaventura. Annual production by Buenaventura (2013 to 2017) averaged 1.3 million ounces of silver, 9,100 tonnes of zinc and 6,500 tonnes of lead.
Excellon announced a few months back that it has secured off-take agreements with Glencore for their concentrates, and is working to put a NI 43-101 economic study in place this year, to outline specific metrics for the move back into production. Shawn outlined that their internal studies project a run-rate of 600 tonnes per day of production, producing approximately 2-2.5 million silver equivalent ounces per year, and with a target All-In Sustaining Cost (AISC) of US$17 per AgEq ounce. Shawn points out that they will also be engaging in an aggressive exploration program to demonstrate the resources can be grown and the mine life extended in a substantial way.
The Tres Cerros Project is a highly prospective gold-silver exploration project approximately five kilometers northwest of the Mallay Mine. The project’s prime area of interest is a 2.5 kilometer by 500 meter corridor of gold-silver mineralization and coincident IP/resistivity anomalies, indicative of a bulk tonnage, high sulfidation epithermal system. Numerous historical grab samples were taken across the 2.5 kilometer fault, which are being analyzed to determine further follow-up exploration work.
Kilgore, is an advanced gold project in Idaho with over 1 million ounces of gold delineated in all categories, and the Company is considering bringing in a JV partner to assist with moving this project forward in exploration and further derisking. Silver City, a high-grade epithermal silver district in Saxony, Germany, with a long history of almost 800 years of silver production. Shawn has stated publicly that they are looking at various options, but are entertaining the idea of spinning out this asset into a new European-focused exploration vehicle.
Wrapping up we reviewed the industry experience the Excellon management team and board has in both moving projects into production as well as a pedigree of exploration success. We discussed that the company is cashed up after their financing and off-take agreement, to conduct the key work and studies on tap over the next 6-9 months as the company moves toward a production decision.
If you have questions for Shawn regarding Excellon Resources, then please email those in to me at Shad@kereport.com.
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