Lone Mountain PEA: $43M NPV, 35% IRR
Minaurum Silver Inc.'s Lone Mountain in "Lone Mountain" district, Nevada, USA (near Barrick Gold's Goldstrike and Carlin mines, Nevada Gold Mines) has a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) outlining an after-tax NPV of $43M and an after-tax IRR of 35%.
Minaurum Silver Inc.'s Lone Mountain has reported Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) results for the zinc-lead-silver-gold crd project in "Lone Mountain" district, Nevada, USA (near Barrick Gold's Goldstrike and Carlin mines, Nevada Gold Mines). The study headlines an after-tax net present value of $43M. It reflects Minaurum Silver Inc.'s (MGG.V) latest disclosed economics for the asset.
Economics. The after-tax NPV is $43M. After-tax IRR is 35%.
These figures are extracted from Minaurum Silver Inc.'s technical disclosures and reflect the most recent PEA on file. Compare this project against other developers and producers in our project economics database, and always verify the numbers against the original technical report before making any investment decision.
Reserves & Resources
| Category | Tonnage | Grade | Contained |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inferred | 3,257,000 tonnes | 7.57% Zn and 0.70% Pb | — |
Our Analysis
- IRR after-tax
- 35%
higher than 58% of 354 projects we track
- NPV after-tax
- $43M
higher than 5% of 453 projects we track
Lone Mountain sits in the upper half of the 354 projects we track on returns, with a 35% after-tax IRR, but only above 5% of the 453 projects we track on after-tax NPV, at $43M. That split is the whole story: a healthy percentage return on a small absolute base. The IRR clears the roughly 15% hurdle developers typically need for project finance, and the 20%-plus that a junior with little else to lean on usually has to show. This company is not that junior, exactly: it carries 9 projects in our tracking, so Lone Mountain is one asset in a diversified book rather than a make-or-break bet. That breadth softens the financing question but also explains why the NPV rank is so weak. A $43M after-tax NPV against a US$128M market cap, about 0.3x, cuts both ways: it can mean the market has yet to price the asset, or that it is discounting the path from study to production. With 9 projects in the portfolio, the market may simply be valuing the optionality elsewhere.
The constraint that matters most is capital intensity against that micro-cap. A build worth several times the company's equity value cannot be financed quietly, and the PEA's capital estimate carries a plus or minus 50% band, so the true funding need could be materially higher or lower than the headline. That uncertainty is the practical barrier, not the IRR.
Confidence in these numbers is limited by stage. This is a scoping-level PEA, which may rest on inferred resources and has not been through feasibility. The comparison to the 2019 PEA is telling: after-tax NPV up 0%, after-tax IRR up 0 points. Six years of work has moved the headline economics not at all, which suggests the study is a restatement rather than an advance. Nevada is a mining-friendly jurisdiction, adjacent to major CarlinTrend operations, and that is a genuine positive for permitting and infrastructure. But the study's own price assumption is the sensitivity that decides the outcome, and no live price is available to test it against. The question that settles this project: can a micro-cap fund a build of this scale without diluting away the 35% return?
Our take, benchmarked against the project economics in the Mining Stocks database. Figures are estimates drawn from company technical reports — not investment advice; always verify against the source filing.