IVR: Finds an additional 13M ounces of silver… silver hits A$100 per ounce

Disclosure: S3 Consortium Pty Ltd (the Company) and Associated Entities own 13,714,286 IVR Shares at the time of publishing this article. The Company has been engaged by IVR to share our commentary on the progress of our Investment in IVR over time. This information is general in nature about a speculative investment and does not constitute personal advice. It does not consider your objectives, financial situation, or needs. Any forward-looking statements are uncertain and not a guaranteed outcome.

This week silver gapped up to over A$100 per ounce.

This is the first time ever that silver has been in triple digits in Aussie dollar terms.

(source)

Our silver Investment Investigator Silver (ASX:IVR) owns one of Australia’s highest grade, pure play silver projects.

It’s the most advanced silver development project in our Portfolio - meaning it's the closest building a silver mine and silver production.

Great timing given the silver price run of late...

IVR’s project has a 57M ounce silver JORC resource estimate with an average grade of 73g/t. (source)

This week IVR added an ADDITIONAL 13M ounces of silver to its mine plan by optimising its pit designs.

That’s an additional ~A$1.3BN of silver at today’s AUD spot price.

(Source: IVR announcement)

IVR already has all of the required technical and engineering design work, including - processing plant designs to build its mine.

And now NEW pit designs and production scheduling all complete.

But with the soaring silver price, the economics of IVR’s project could improve significantly relative to its 2021 Pre Feasibility Study...

IVR’s 2021 study was done at A$34.5 silver price

In a slide in IVR’s most recent presentation, IVR said that a silver price increase to ~A$70 per would add >$1BN in free cash flow to the project economics...

Yesterday silver hit ~A$100.

And this week, “pit optimisations have added an ADDITIONAL 13M ounces of silver into the mine plan (an extra A$1.3BN in silver at today’s spot prices).

Now we wait to see the silver price and the new mine plan impact the IVR’s Definitive Feasibility Study due in the first half of 2026 where we will get a detailed look at the most up to date project economics. (source)

This week IVR put out what we think was a very strong technical announcement - showing the market how that updated DFS could improve on the 2021 study.

It was accompanied by a video of Managing Director Lachlan Wallace talking about the technical optimisations done for the mine build (watch it here).

We haven’t seen an MD this excited about mine optimisations before with such a glint in their eye...

He is definitely a focused “mine building guy” having done it before as the former CEO of Hillgrove Resources where he led the design, permitting, financing and restart of the Kanmantoo copper mine, also in South Australia...

(Keep reading to see our deep dive on the announcement)

The biggest takeaway for us was the extra 13M ounces of silver that IVR can now bring into its mine plan.

Basically, by optimising the pit designs, IVR has been able to work out a way to mine an extra 13M ounces of silver.

And those 13M ounces will be in the DFS come in H1 2026.

At today’s silver price of ~A$100,, 13M ounces of silver is ~A$1.3BN...

Here is that “optimised pit shell” IVR has redesigned to get those extra ounces:

(source)

Again, In a recent slide in IVR’s most recent presentation, IVR said that a silver price increase >100% (meaning ~A$70 per ounce silver) would add >$1BN in free cash flow to the project economics...

(Source)

That is before we add the extra $1.3BN in silver...

And before we account for a A$100 per ounce silver price.

We wonder what the extra cashflow would look like once those are considered...

IVR’s 2021 study delivered the following project economics:

• All in Sustaining Costs of A$17.45/oz
• Base case silver price of US$24.70/oz = A$34.30/oz
• A pre-tax Net Present Value (NPV) of $202M and
• free cash of A$487M.

We are hoping to see a material upgrade to the NPV when the DFS gets published - especially after the news from this week.

Ultimately we want to see IVR take advantage of a bullish silver environment and get its project financed (while the silver price is hot and capital is willing to back projects into development).

Just as ASX listed peer Boab Metals has been able to do.

In the last few weeks, Boab has secured a debt financing facility for A$236M, raised $110M in equity this quarter and made a Final Investment Decision (FID) on its project... (source) (source) (source)

(source)

Comparing IVR and Boab, IVR’s project has almost double the grade and the two projects have similar amounts of silver in JORC resources.

So there is a direct comparison in the market (where the grades are lower) and where financiers have financed a project into development.

Boab’s project has a total resource estimate of ~53M ounces of silver at an average silver grade of ~35g/t.

IVR’s project has more silver at 57M ounces (estimated) and at an average grade of 73g/t silver.

(source) (source)

Surely, if the market is willing to finance Boab’s project into development...

Then IVR, whose project is bigger and higher grade should also be backable...

(Especially after this week’s update)

Why we think this week's IVR announcement matters

Before our take, here is IVR’s Managing Director, Lachlan Wallace talking through the announcement:

(Source)

And our take:

Since Lachlan joined IVR, he has kept reiterating he would be focusing on right sizing and optimising the project to make it financeable.

We think this week's announcement proved that because:

1. IVR demonstrated that it can increase its silver recovery rates by ~6% by “reducing the primary grind size to 53 microns” - introducing more crushing/grinding to separate more silver from the ore being mined.

AND

2. Updated pit optimisation incorporating updated costs and silver prices - being able to add more of the project into the mine plan because parts of the project that were previously considered uneconomic to mine, could now be considered economic.

For the pit shell optimisation, IVR chose to use a silver price of A$70 per ounce.

(which is still well below current spot prices of ~A$100 per ounce).

That updated silver price also means the cut-off grade for material that can be mined almost halves (from ~43.5g/t silver in the 2021 PFS to “a range of 22 to 27 g/t silver”

The end result:

IVR brings into its mine plan an extra ~13M ounces of silver relative to its 2021 PFS...

(13M ounces of silver at today’s prices is ~$1.3BN in silver)

(source)

Here are the changes relative to the 2021 PFS, the main ones to note are:

• Mining costs - which have gone up relative to the PFS (to be expected given it was a ~4 year old study).
• Recovery rates - which at the upper end improve to 86% (underwriting recoveries reduces overall project risk)
• A lower “strip ratio” - meaning less waste gets mined relative to ore that had silver in it (should lower processing costs)

And obviously the big one “in situ” silver goes from 35M ounces to 48M ounces... (an extra ~A$1.3BN in silver):

(source)

As for the other key takeaway which is a potential ~6% increase in silver recovery rates.

IVR completed additional metallurgical testing to come up with the new grind size in its mine plan - which we think will work in the company’s favour when the project is brought into production.

The way we see it, IVR is taking a more conservative approach by reducing grind size to underwrite the recovery rates of the project.

The worst possible outcome would be if the company went into production and then recovery rates were way below what was expected...

An increase in recovery rates results in more silver staying out of the ground and being added to what is able to be sold, so directly adds to revenues.

(source)

And here are the zones where those samples were taken from:

(source)

Overall, we think the two updates make IVR’s project more financeable because:

1. It brings more silver into the mine plan (meaning more revenues are made over the course of the mine’s life), and,
2. By overengineering the project with a finer crushing processing circuit IVR underwrites the recovery rates (basically making the recovery risk a lot lower for any financier).

Fingers crossed, any potential financiers also see it the way we are seeing it.

Ultimately, we think project financing and getting the project built will be what helps IVR achieve our Big Bet as follows:

Our IVR Big Bet:

“IVR takes advantage of the high silver price environment and puts its project into production. At that point, we would expect IVR to be capped at multiples of our Initial Entry Price”

NOTE: our “Big Bet” is what we HOPE the ultimate success scenario looks like for this particular Investment over the long term (3+ years). There is no guarantee that our Big Bet will ever come true. There is a lot of work to be done, many risks involved, including development risk, country risk and commodity price risk - just some of which we list in our IVR Investment Memo.

Success will require a significant amount of luck. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance.

Exploration is also a part of the IVR story

Even though IVR’s project is advanced, we think exploration upside is still in play for the company.

IVR holds ground to the south-east of its deposit where any new major discoveries, especially if they are high grade, could be plugged into the front end of a development plan and increase the economics of a development scenario.

It could also extend the life of the mine beyond the current 7 years.

Both things are what potential financiers want to see - first because higher grades early in the mine life means a quicker payback on development CAPEX, and second because a longer mine life de-risks the project in the long run.

(source)

IVR recently added two new high priority targets (Athena and Hestia) to its portfolio of regional exploration targets.

The Athena prospect was previously drilled in 2012 and 2013, mostly with no testing of the surrounding geology for precious metals.

Later re-assays from those holes returned intercepts like 5m at 493g/t silver from 71m.

Since then, the prospects haven’t really been explored (especially for silver).

(Source)

At the Apollo prospect, to the north of the Paris deposit, IVR has hits as high as 8m @ 1,262g/t Ag from 149m.

The “Paris Silver Corridor” presents the company with many exploration opportunities as it advances the Paris deposit through to production.

(Source)

We think the upcoming drill programs could bring attention to the IVR story while the permitting process and feasibility studies are progressing in the background.

What do we want to see IVR do next?

Definitive Feasibility Study on Paris silver project 🔄

We want to see IVR complete and release its Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS).

We are hoping to see a big improvement on the A$202M (pre-tax) Net Present Value (NPV) that was delivered in IVR’s last study in 2021.

Here are the milestones we are tracking:

✅ Pit design

🔄 Flowsheet revision

🔄 Throughput optimisation

🔲 DFS completed

Permitting of the Paris silver project

At the same time as the DFS, we also want to see IVR go through all of the permitting workstreams on its project. We especially want to see the project get a mining licence and get an environmental permit granted for the project as soon as possible.

Here are the milestones we are tracking:

🔲 Environmental permits

🔲 Project infrastructure permits

🔲 Mining license granted

Drilling on regional targets🔄

We also want to see IVR drill out the 15km corridor of targets that sit around its 57M ounce JORC resource estimate.

The ultimate success from these drill programs would be a discovery similar to IVR’s existing resource.

IVR expects to be drilling on these targets in the first half of next year (source).

Here are the milestones we are tracking:

✅ Geophysics/Geochemistry work
✅ Identify drill targets

🔲 Drilling starts

🔲 Drilling results

What are the risks?

In the short term - given IVR isn’t doing any drilling right now - the key risk is “commodity price risk”.

IVR’s share price will likely fluctuate with movements in the silver price.

If silver’s breakout is only temporary and the price starts falling dramatically, then capital could flow out of silver stocks in general which would impact IVR’s share price negatively.

Commodity price risk

The performance of commodity stocks are often closely linked to the value of the underlying commodities they are seeking to extract. Should silver prices fall, this could hurt the IVR share price.

Source: “What could go wrong” - IVR Investment Memo 03-Oct-2025

Other risks

Like any stock market investment, investing in IVR carries a range of risks that may affect the company’s value. Some risks are identifiable, while others are unpredictable.

IVR’s main asset is the Paris silver project in South Australia. It is at the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) stage but is not yet a producing mine. There is a risk the project never reaches production.

The company is pre-revenue and reliant on raising capital to fund development. Any equity raise may dilute existing shareholders, and debt funding may not be available on favourable terms.

Permitting and approvals pose another risk. Mining licenses and environmental permits can take longer than expected or face objections that delay project timelines.

Development risk is also material. Building a mine involves technical, financial, and operational challenges. Cost overruns or delays could hurt the share price.

IVR’s share price has already moved with silver’s recent strength. Current levels may partially reflect anticipated upside, increasing the risk of pullbacks if silver softens or milestones slip.

Finally, market and macro risks apply. A downturn in equity markets or sentiment towards junior explorers could weigh on IVR regardless of company progress.

Investors should carefully consider these risks and seek professional advice before making an investment decision.

Our IVR Investment Memo

You can read our IVR Investment Memo in the link below.

We use this memo to track the progress of all our Investments over time.

Our IVR Investment Memo covers:

• What does IVR do?
• The macro theme for IVR
• Our IVR Big Bet
• What we want to see IVR achieve
• Why we are Invested in IVR
• The key risks to our Investment Thesis
• Our Investment Plan