Kuya Silver

Um, thanks everyone. Um, it's my, uh, my pleasure to, uh, share this, the Kuya story with you. Uh, we have a producing mine in Peru. We've been working very hard on this for the last number of years to get this in production, and really now the, the focus is building scale, uh, both on the production side and also in terms of our, our resources in the, in the Bethania camp that we're putting together. So that's what I'm gonna focus on, and, uh, uh, and, uh, yeah, I look forward to, uh, your questions if we have any time after. Um, but let's get into it. So, um, we're gonna focus most of the, this twenty minutes or less on Peru. That's our flagship project, the Bethania mine in, in, uh, central Peru. However, um, before I go there, we have, over the time that we've been public, picked up a couple other silver projects, and, you know, primary silver projects are extremely rare. Most silver projects that you will hear about are, you know, byproducts with gold, zinc, or something else. And so the fact that we have in our portfolio not one but three primary silver projects is really quite special, and we do think that there's, you know, value to be had with our, with our earlier stage projects, Silver Kings in Ontario and, and our JV in Saudi Arabia, uh, called Um Hadid. Um, but again, the, the real driver is Peru. Um, Peru's got such big potential for us. I mean, arguably we don't need anything else, but, uh, here we are. Uh, so we're getting ninety percent of our revenue from silver. Uh, that puts us among, you know, the top, uh, silver producers in terms of, in terms of percentage revenue. So right there, that, that makes Kuya a very, a very special company. Um, what I think that means, practically speaking, uh, for, for you as an investor, is that when we do get a little further along and we're being valued on EBITDA or cash flow or NPV, whatever metrics you wanna use, we should trade at a premium to our peers, both because of our silver exposure that we give investors is quite unique, and also because of the huge, uh, growth profile both in production and exploration, which I'll, I'll explain how we're gonna do that. Uh, we-- we're largely de-risked. I mean, the biggest risk you have in mining is time, and we're-- the fact that we're already producing fully permitted mine in a mining-friendly jurisdiction, again, puts us, um, you know, well ahead of the game. We've a really strong balance sheet, actually more than thirty million in ca-- in Canadian cash. It's, uh, twenty-five USD, so about thirty-five Canadian, and no debt. Uh, we've got a multi-year growth plan. This is really exciting as well because we, we do have a lot of catalysts in the short term that I think are gonna be positive as we, as we, uh, you know, report our progress on, on ramping up the mine and the exploration program over the next three months, six months, et cetera. But we're really building this company to compound, uh, with, uh, with growth over many, many years as we expand this Bethania district. So just keep that in mind, and I'll, I'll talk more about that a bit later. Uh, capital discipline, no near-term need for financing. Again, we're fully financed for all the growth that we want or need to do at, in Bethania and, um, you know, to get the mine to the point where it's basically paying for its own growth. And the valuation upside is absolutely huge. We're-- After the sell-off this past week, we're sitting at about a sixty-five million dollar USD EBITDA, uh, enterprise value. So, you know, getting some, uh, production and getting valued on that, I mean, the, the, the upside is, is just huge if you look at where our peers are trading. Okay, in the interest of time, I'm gonna, I'm gonna breeze through this. Um, but here's where we're located, central Peru. Uh, s- you can see the red, uh, Betha- Bethania, the red cross, uh, uh, uh, crossed hammers there. Uh, we process at the Camil plant about a hundred and fifty kilometers away at the moment. We're gonna build our own plant at site as well. And we're in this very well-defined, uh, mining camp in, uh, in central Peru with lots of other silver, lead, zinc, and gold mines around us. It's probably the most important slide in the deck. It's our hundred-hundred plan. So this is, this is how we think about our medium to long-term growth with the Bethania project. Obviously, in the short term, you know, the rest of twenty twenty-six and, and early 'twenty-seven, we're ramping up, uh, the mine, and that's really a very big focus for us day to day right now. Getting to that three fifty ton, that's what we're permitted to produce at the mine. So we wanna get to that level to maximize the production, producing over a million ounces a year, uh, of silver, and also we're, we're, we're now starting our, our, our drill program, which is, uh, which is really exciting. So a lot of things are firing, uh, at Bethania right now. Uh, one thing about, you know, producing a million ounces a year, uh, w- we think at sixty dollar silver, we're gonna have very, very expansive margins on that. Um, we don't have a recent study, so I won't go any, into any more detail, but I'm-- I'd be happy to discuss that offline with, with you after. But needless to say, I think the valuation upside at a million ounces into, is into the many hundreds of millions of dollars, uh, of market cap. And of course, you know, we're, we're well below a hundred today, so there's huge upside, and that's very short term. That's in the next, you know, few quarters. Uh, longer term, as we look into later into twenty twenty-seven and beyond, the, the plan will be to finish this drill program, update the resource, then, uh, then we will decide how, uh, how big the next phase of Bethania's gonna be. Will it be a thousand tons per day? Will it be more? Uh, we'll be able to answer more of those questions later in twenty twenty-seven and then start to put a plan together in place. Again, I expect that to be fully funded, uh, both the, the plant expansion and the mine expansion, and further exploration should be fully funded by our cash flow, which by then will be quite substantial. And we keep building this. The hundred hundred plan comes from a hundred million ounces of silver resource go-- as a goal, and a hundred million a year of, of free ca-- of cash flow or EBITDA as a goal. Um, we won't get there in twenty twenty-seven, but certainly in twenty twenty-eight or beyond, it's, it's, uh, depending on the silver price, it's definitely, uh, quite realistic. So one of the ways that we're gonna get this hundred hundred plan done is through intensive exploration, which we've never really been able to do until now. So, you know, up until late last year, we were, uh, very undercapitalized. Fortunately, with the, with the stronger markets, we were able to address that. That's, you know, that's the main reason we're sitting on so much cash to-today. And, uh, we're gonna put quite a lot, quite, you know, some of that cash into drilling. Uh, so we have not drilled in five years at Bethania. It's-- I can't believe it myself, um, [chuckles] but, uh, we're very, very excited. The drills are turning now. So this is our entire land package. During the, during the tough years in between going public and, and, you know, twenty twenty-five, we were able to put together this large land package. And we sent our geologists out into the field and, and they've been able to identify six more silver vein systems outside of the Bethania mine. So they all appear to be distinct silver vein, you know, zones or systems, uh, which we've done hundreds of samples on all of them, lots of mapping, and there's some evidence of artisanal mining as well, past artisanal mining, so that's a good clue. Uh, so we, we really believe all six of these could be resources and, and maybe mines for us down the road, feeding that centralized mill at Bethania. So zooming in now, you can see that the Bethania mine is the biggest footprint right now. That's because we've done the most work there. Obviously, that's where we're mining. That's our home base for the moment. That's where the mill is gonna be. But we do have, uh, you know, Carmelitas Main, Miococha West, and Tito, uh, both of which have, you know, similar size and scale to Bethania in terms of their footprint on surface, where we're mapping the veins and, uh, and, and where we-- where we're taking those samples. The other three look to be a little smaller, but you know, you never know what happens as you go underground. So, uh, so we're gonna start with the bigger ones in terms of our, our surface drill program, and we're also doing an extensive drill program underground at the same time. So the total is twenty thousand meters, just started, uh, last week, and half of that will be underground, half of that will be on surface. In terms of the underground drilling, we're going to, uh, drill below the-- where our, our current resource is. That Bethania maiden resource, the red triangle there, again, five years old. Um, we did that drilling originally, five thousand meters in twenty twenty-one to get fourteen million ounces inferred plus, uh, indicated, uh, silver equivalent. There's, there's, uh, been several million ounces mined out of this. This was a past producing mine before we got there. Plus, we have made some new discoveries in that same area since the resource. So if you add the mined-out stuff, the new resources or the new potential veins, plus what's there now, you know, you're somewhere in the twenty million ounces of geological endowment, uh, before any mining took place. And that's open to the, uh, depth and open along strike. So we've got two rigs drilling the depth extension, and if we go down another two hundred meters, we expect to get basically the same as what's above, which would be roughly twenty million ounces. Uh, and then off to the east, uh, we've got the extension of the veins on the other side of the hill there. We call that the hilltop zone, and we are going to drill off to the east and test that as well. Uh, and, and so there's-- When you, when you look at both the depth potential plus what could be in the other side of the hill, uh, as you extend off to the east, you know, you're looking at many, many tens of millions of ounces that we can add here just with this current drill program. And then we'll take the other ten thousand meters. We'll-- we, we're gonna run a couple of surface rigs. Um, oh, I lost... Okay. Probably, I'm gonna go back for a second. Probably one of the rigs, uh, or not, not probably. One of the rigs we're gonna do is on Carmelitas Main. That's the, the project we're setting up first, uh, for, for drilling. And then we'll likely choose one of the other two, Miococha West or Tito, for, for some drilling as well in, in early twenty twenty-seven. So lots of news coming out on drilling. Uh, the resource growth is really important part of our valuation. I think it, it'll just add to what kind of multiple we trade at, um, because, you know, w-once we can demonstrate that, that, that we've got, you know, many, many years of production, that we've got that expansion potential, you know, much like some of our peers and bigger silver companies out there have done this, and we're really following in their footsteps. So I've got a couple minutes I can just quickly cover Silver Kings and Umhadid. Uh, Silver Kings is a, you know, huge property in the Cobalt Camp. No resources at the moment, but we do-- uh, we did make a, a new discovery a couple years ago with, with drilling. We decided to stop drilling there, focus on Bethania, uh, in twenty twenty-five. However, we have been able to sample some of the surface material there. Because our property covers a lot of old mines, we have tailings, we have low-grade stockpiles, and those, of course, still contain silver and sometimes cobalt as well. So, uh, we have a, a press release, uh, a couple months ago with the sampling for that. And in particular, I personally think the tailings look pretty interesting because some of these tailings are as much as eighty or a hundred years old, where they couldn't recover much silver, or they left a lot of silver in there. And, uh, that's something we could, we could look at for a little starter project to get some cash flow and then, and then keep exploring, uh, this, uh, this very, very exciting district in Northern Ontario. And then finally, Um Hadid, uh, this is our JV. We have a back-in right. So the, the deal that we, that we struck with our, with our financing partner, which is our financial partner in Saudi Arabia, is, uh, that, uh, they're paying for the whole program right now. I think between last year and what we've done this year, we're probably in, in the 15 to 20,000 meter range now. Uh, we're still drilling there. We- we've got a few more meters to go this year, and then we're going to look at, you know, uh, see what we've got and then, then plan a 2027 program, both potentially resource and, and, uh, perhaps some economics on, on some kind of mining s- early mining scenario there. Uh, it's been going very well. You know, the fact that we're able to move it that quickly is because we've been successful with the drill, and, uh, that's really been driven by our, our team, uh, the Kuya team, uh, supervising and, uh, the, the drill strategy and the exploration plan here. Uh, if you look at our, our press release from a couple of, uh, weeks ago, we've got a really good update here, and I would encourage you to look at, uh, what we're drilling there. Got high-grade core, again, dominantly silver with some low grade around it that potentially could be open pitable. So we'll see. We need to do more drilling, but it's looking very good, and we're excited about that. If we back in, we can be a 40-- We can buy a 45% interest in the project for very, very cheap, very li-- um, a very good deal. And, um, and then we would be 45/55 partners with, uh, with our, with our Saudi partner there. So that's it. Um, leave you with the, uh, with the capital structure. Uh, we're sitting with 195 million shares and, uh, some, uh, great investors on, on the, on the books already and, uh, hopefully more to come. We do have a few minutes for questions. If you have a question, please raise your hand so a microphone can be brought forward. Just at the front here. Thank you very much. Um, I was just wondering, uh, i- is it, uh, just incidental shipments right now to the Camilla Mill from Be- Bethania? And, uh, when do you think you'll be into steady state shipments, and how many tons a day or whatever? Sure. Right now, the Camilla Mill can do 150 tons per day. We're helping them expand that, and that expansion should be done, uh, fairly soon in the next few months, if not, maybe early 2027, uh, to at least 250 tons per day. Right now, what we do is we, we, we, uh, mine and stockpile our, you know, mineralized material at site, and then we truck it to Camilla in batches. Once we get closer to 150 tons per day, we'll-- that will essentially be constant because we'll be constantly feeding the mill, uh, filling the mill, and then, um, and then we'll continue to do that, uh, as it expands to, to 250 tons per day. Now there's-- Because we're planning to mine 350 tons per day, there is a hundred ton per day gap there, which we will, um, we will address one of two ways. Either we can find-- If we really need the cash flow from that, we could go to another third-party mill and just toll that 100 tons a day somewhere else. Or my preferred route, um, would be just to stockpile it, and we'll pro- start processing it once we have our own mill, uh, completed, uh, towards the end of next year. Uh, I don't think we need to sell every single ton that we mine, given the silver price, given our financial strength, our, our strong balance sheet. I don't think we need to sell every, every ton right now, so we do have that option to stockpile. Yeah. Right. Right. It's, uh, a land position to the, uh, west of Bethania. There's a big block which apparently you don't control, and I'm curious if you could give us a little more color on that. Yeah, sure. Um, you know, the way the, the way the Peruvian system works now with, with mi- with, uh, with the, the sort of the, the new, I think it's post-2016, is one by one kilometer, uh, blocks. That's what you would-- That's, that's what you can stake for, for new claims. And so some of what we have was purchased, uh, from previous, uh, owners, some of which was, was staked, new, new claim staking that we've done. Uh, so we-- There is that block, uh, west of the mine we don't have. There's actually two different owners in that. It's about, it's about three, uh, it's about three one-by-one squares. So two of those squares is Fresnillo, one of them is a Chinese company called Henan. And as far as we're aware, there's not much activity going on in that, in that middle area right now. It's kind of a valley, and then it goes up to another hill where Carmelitas is, where we have, where we have more, uh, more silver veins. Yeah. We do have a couple minutes if there's any more questions from the floor. Maybe just a quick one from me then. Um, you know, you, you're looking to grow fairly significantly in terms of tonnage coming out of the mine. Do you think, you know, in the fullness of time that the bulk of that tonnage growth is gonna be from Bethania or from the, the more regional targets? Yeah, that's a great question. You know, one, one, one thing I didn't touch on, it was, um, this new, uh, ramp we're putting in. So it's part of our, it's part of our, um, infrastructure. We're, we're, we're investing in the mine to ramp up production and debottleneck, uh, the, the sort of the-- debottleneck what we acquired previously from the previous owners. Uh, and so that ramp, which is four by four meters, and it's gonna be allow truck traffic in and out of the mine, would allow us to ramp up Bethania to something significantly more than 350 tons per day. We'll have to see exactly if it's gonna be, you know, 500, 700, something like that, but it would be on that order, maybe even 1,000, um, if there's resources there to justify that. With that being said, we also do expect that, you know, at least a few of those other satellite vein systems will become mines. And so, you know, maybe we'll have 100 tons from Carmelitas or 200 tons from Miacocha and all trucking those all towards, towards Bethania. So I don't-- I think Bethania, at least based on what we know today, does seem to be the largest vein system and, and has the most tonnage potential in the camp. But that's also just because it's the one where-- w- that's had the most exploration, the most production, the one that we know the most about. So, um, so Bethania can definitely produce quite a, quite a lot of that, you know, 1,000 tons per day, let's say, most of it. But we, we do, uh, expect to rely on some of those other pits or, or either pits or underground mines to fill more tonnage. And maybe in the last 45 seconds that we've got here, um, silver developers that go into production tend to have a fairly short lifespan in that producers tend to buy them fairly quickly- Right ... for the, uh, access to the silver there. Uh, is, is it your ambition to build a larger silver company with the Canada and, and Saudi Arabia? Or, um, you know, if, if somebody came along with the right price, would you step aside? Yeah. Um, you know, I, I, I personally don't think, like, setting up your company to sell is a good business model, but it definitely happens, as you said. So, you know, in the, in ... So I think, look, we're gonna drill the resource. I think that's probably the one thing that would hold back an acq- acquisition is the, is the resource right now, the fact that we haven't done enough drilling in the last few years. We're gonna address that in the next 12 months, and then let's see what happens. Well, that's the end of our time. Please join me in thanking David. Thank you. [audience applauding]