Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with Stavely Minerals (ASX:SVY), Executive Chair Chris Cairns
Lel Smits: Stavely Minerals is advancing its copper-gold-silver assets in western Victoria with an updated scoping study outlining an estimated pre-tax net present value of $818 million for its Thursday’s Gossan project. Ahead of presenting its stocks on location, I’m joined by Stavely Minerals Executive Chair Chris Cairns to discuss the project’s economics development options and upcoming exploration catalysts. Chris, welcome to The Stock Network.
Chris Cairns: Thank you, good to be here.
Lel Smits: Now, in terms of your updated scoping study, it outlined an estimated pre-tax MPV of $818 million. Chris, what do the numbers tell you about the project’s potential and also what needs to happen from here to move it to production?
Chris Cairns: Look, I think that the scoping study certainly surprised the market in terms of the magnitude of that MPV at a 7% discount.
I think the more telling number really is the internal rate of return of 40%, which tells people that this project is quite robust. The copper prices that we used in the scoping study are less than the current price today. So I think at today’s prices, we’re in excess of 900 million MPV and 43% IRR.
So I think the key message is that it’s a robust project. It was based on an assumed three-stage open pit. We’re just going into a phase now where we’re looking at other options where we might just do this first phase open pit and then transition to an underground, which on an MPV basis may not be quite as large as the open pit scenario, but it may have a higher IRR because of the lower capital involved.
So we think that we should investigate those options for development, particularly in the context of the likelihood of getting it permitted in a state like Victoria. So just doing that sort of optionality type study, I think is very valuable for both us and potential partners.
Lel Smits: Absolutely.
And Chris, in terms of unlocking copper and gold growth across the group, beyond Thursday’s Gossan, you have reported high-grade copper-silver results at Junction, also a new gold-silver discovery at Freddie’s Fine, with further drilling also planned. Chris, where are you seeing the greatest opportunities to expand?
Chris Cairns: Yeah, I think the prospects that you’ve named certainly are the ones that are in front of us right at this very moment. The Junction opportunity has been a land access problem for us, but we think that that will be resolved in short order with the property for sale and that owner moving out of the district.
So that’s sort of a wait and see type of a situation, but very compelling numbers from Shallow Air Core drilled in late 2024. 20-odd metres at 3.5% copper and 20g silvers at very shallow depths in 20 metres or what have you. Yeah, very neat opportunity there, only 2km south of the Kaley Lout, so it’s really proximal to the subject of the scoping study.
And then, as you mentioned, Freddie’s Fine, a blind discovery under 50m of basalt, gold and silver, it’s intermediate sulfidation style like Cowell in New South Wales, that style. So they can be large deposits and we’ve only really scratched the surface in terms of the opportunity there. It’s a very big system, we believe it’s part of a porphyry epithermal complex of about 5km in diameter.
But if you take it a little step backwards, the magnitude of the opportunity is that we control 130km of volcanic arcs, you know, this is like the Andes in Chile and places like that. This was the continental margin of Australia 500 million years ago, we have exactly the same styles of mineralisation as they do in Chile. But this is underexplored and probably 85% of the opportunity is under either transported cover or younger basalt.
So no one’s actually seen the rocks under the cover. So it is a wide open exploration opportunity. We’ve demonstrated both in terms of gold and copper that it’s very, very fertile and it’s very early days.
I think we’ll see a couple of mines in this district in the fullness of time.
Lel Smits: Well, Chris, I appreciate the update from Staveley Minerals and look forward to hearing when you’re on stage at Stocks on Location. Thank you very much.
Chris Cairns: I look forward to it as well.
Ends