WCE: High grade silver drilling starts today as silver price hits all time highs overnight - above US $51 per ounce.

Disclosure: S3 Consortium Pty Ltd (the Company) and Associated Entities own 4,863,000 WCE Shares at the time of publishing this article. The Company has been engaged by WCE to share our commentary on the progress of our Investment in WCE 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.

We were up watching it...

Silver traded above US$51 per ounce late last night.

(twice)

That’s not a typo.

Silver blasted through its previous ~US$50 all time high like it was wet toilet paper...

... and hit a new all time highest price EVER.

It feels like just a few weeks ago we were saying if silver went above US$40 we would add some more silver Investments.

(it was just 5 weeks ago silver was still under US$40)

When silver was trading in the US$30s we felt like a big run up in the silver price was coming and so we started loading up in silver names.

One of the earlier Investments we made during that period was West Coast Silver (ASX:WCE).

The past performance is not and should not be taken as an indication of future performance. Caution should be exercised in assessing past performance. This product, like all other financial products, is subject to market forces and unpredictable events that may adversely affect future performance.

WCE owns 70% of the Elizabeth Hill Mine - one of the highest grade silver mines to ever produce in Australia.

Yesterday WCE announced its started a new drilling campaign at Elizabeth Hill today:

(source - WCE announcement)

When WCE’s Elizabeth Hill mine was operating over 20 years ago, it produced 1.2M ounces of silver from just 16,830 tonnes of ore - meaning average production grades were ~2,194g/t silver...

The mineralisation is near surface, and open on all sides. WCE has identified a number of exploration targets that could feed into an economic silver resource.

The project is also a part of Australian history... the largest Australian native silver nugget in existence is from WCE’s project and sits in the Perth Mint museum...

(Source: our photo from the Perth Mint)

We are Invested in WCE to see it go back and drill test the near mine areas to see if Elizabeth Hill can be brought back to life - in a period of heightened silver prices.

WCE has already run one round of drilling and shown there is more silver near surface - sitting right above the leftover remnant ore from the last time the project was mined (in the early 2000s).

So far, so good...

IF WCE keep hitting silver from surface could build a case to restart mining on Elizabeth Hill - but this time potentially via some sort of big open pit instead of having to go underground.

(the blue lines below are just for us to visualise what an open-pit would look like, we aren’t mining engineers and this may not even be possible)

The leftover remnant ore underground is estimated to be a non-JORC compliant resource of ~46.8kt @ 2,700g/t silver for 4.05Moz of silver. (source)

Yesterday, WCE said the second round of drilling would start on the 10th of October (which is today).

WCE is now going back in to drill the shallow targets again AND testing those hits from the last program where WCE found silver below the remnant ore.

IF drilling comes in on both sides, we will get a much better idea of how big that green blob (leftover remnant ore) can grow in either direction (at depth and up to surface):

By the end of this drill program we should have a fairly good idea of how a revived Elizabeth Hill mine would look.

Ultimately we are Invested in WCE to see it:

• Drill out, make near-mine discoveries next to the Elizabeth Hill mine and eventually bring the project back online (which WCE is doing right now).
• Drill, discover and define Elizabeth Hill look-a-likes across its ~20 regional targets (which WCE is working on in the background - more on that in the next part of this note).

Check out our full initiation note on WCE to see the 9 key reasons why we are Invested in WCE: Our New Portfolio Addition: West Coast Silver (ASX: WCE)

Can WCE find an Elizabeth Hill repeat?:

One of the main reasons we Invested in WCE was because we think the company can make repeat discoveries similar to Elizabeth Hill.

Here is one of the key reasons we listed in our initiation note back in August:

Reason #8: Regional targets ranked, exploration starting soon

There is very limited modern exploration over WCE’s regional targets. WCE just identified ~12 high priority and 8 earlier stage regional targets. These are the targets where we are hoping to see a repeat of the high grades at Elizabeth Hill. Air-core/channel sampling to start on these very soon.

Source: “Why did we Invest in WCE” - WCE Investment Memo 2025

WCE’s project area sits on over a 180km2 area - most of which hasn’t been touched in decades.

Yesterday WCE confirmed that geophysical surveys had started on the company’s broader project area which WCE plans to then follow up with aircore drilling.

The whole purpose of that program is to see if any “conductors” (areas that warrant following up with drilling) can be found so that WCE can pepper those areas with shallow aircore drilling.

WCE has already previously ranked ~20 regional targets where we are hoping repeat Elizabeth Hills are discovered.

So in the coming weeks we will know where the highest priority targets are (and where WCE will go after first with aircore drilling).

Aircore drilling is scheduled to start in November.

(Source)

Ultimately we think any discovery or operation resembling the old Elizabeth Hill mine could re-rate WCE’s valuation higher from where it is today - which forms the basis for our WCE Big Bet.

(especially with silver trading where it is today at ~US$49 per ounce - remembering that the project WCE owns now was suspended when silver was at US$5 per ounce...)

Our WCE Big Bet:

“WCE re-rates to a market cap of $300M by bringing the Elizabeth Hill mine back online OR making a new discovery that is as big (if not bigger) than Elizabeth Hill into a strong macro silver theme.”

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 WCE Investment Memo.

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

What’s next for WCE?

Assays from diamond drill program 🔄

We want to see drill results come from the diamond drill program WCE will be doing over the coming months.

We are especially interested in seeing what comes from the targets at depth:

Near-mine and regional exploration 🔄

We want to see what comes from the geophysical surveys on WCE’s regional targets.

After that we want to see WCE aircore drill and sample the highest priority targets.

Ultimately we think the big re-rate for WCE could come from a repeat Elizabeth Hill being discovered.

(Source - WCE announcement 22 August 2025)

What are the risks?

In the short term the two key risks to our WCE Investment is “Exploration risk” and “Commodity Price risk”.

With drilling starting today, there is an element of exploration risk in WCE.

There is a risk WCE finds nothing that is considered economically viable and the company’s share price re-rates lower.

Exploration risk

There is no guarantee that WCE’s upcoming drill programs are successful. WCE may fail to find economic deposits of silver.

Source: What could go wrong? - WCE Investment Memo 8 August 2025.

Right now the silver price is trading near its all time highs.

WCE’s primary commodity exposure is silver, so any fall in the silver price could mean WCE’s share price moves lower.

Other risks

Like any stock market investment, investing in WCE carries a range of additional risks that could affect the value of the company, some of which cannot be foreseen (this is the nature of risks).

Here we aim to identify a few more risks.

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 WCE share price.

Source: What could go wrong? - WCE Investment Memo 8 August 2025.

WCE’s primary project is centred on an historic silver mine, and there is no guarantee that drilling will lead to new economic discoveries or that remnant mineralisation can be extracted profitably.

As a junior explorer with a ~$60M market cap, WCE remains a speculative investment. Even with recent drilling success, the current valuation may already be factoring in future upside.

Like all small-cap explorers, WCE is reliant on capital markets to fund exploration. Any future capital raise may be done at a discount and dilute existing shareholders.

Finally, while WA is considered a safe mining jurisdiction, there are always regulatory, environmental, heritage and permitting risks which could delay or impede development.

Investors should carefully consider these risks and seek professional advice tailored to their personal circumstances before investing.

Our WCE Investment Memo

In our WCE Investment Memo, you can find the following:

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