BKB raises $12.5M to advance US silver and gold projects

Our 2025 Small Cap Pick of the Year Black Bear Minerals (ASX: BKB | OTCQX: BKBMF) just raised $12.5M to advance its Shafter silver project in Texas, USA.

BKB has two projects:

1. Its silver project in Texas, and
2. A gold project in Nevada - right next door to $108BN Barrick and $192BN Newmont's Nevada Gold Mines (NGM).

The placement was priced at 55c per share.

We Invested in the placement adding to our position.

We also like that Executive Chairman Matthew Hayes came in for $500,000 (subject to shareholder approval).

We like seeing management put skin in the game, and this is more skin being put in than we usually see.

(source)

Most of the money goes to Shafter, a big reason we like the project is that it already has A$150M of existing on-site infrastructure, including:

1. A 17.5Moz @ 289g/t silver foreign (non-JORC) resource BKB is converting to JORC,
2. ~35M ounces of past silver production at 521g/t.
3. Plant + refinery (built 2011-2012)
4. A modern 24,000 sq. ft. warehouse
5. An assay lab
6. Existing power lines + an on-site substation
7. Full water rights
8. 160km of existing underground workings
9. Four production shafts

(source)

The raise funds underground drilling, JORC-conversion infill drilling, and permitting and restart studies.

BKB also now has the cash to settle part of the deferred Shafter acquisition payment that is coming up next month.

BKB has been drilling here from surface and resampling old cores (which are showing uplifts in grade, plus gold), looking to convert the foreign resource estimate to JORC.

This will now be quicker and cheaper with access to the underground mine nearing:

(source)

Earlier this week BKB confirmed it is about to open underground access at Shafter, which we covered here.

Then there is Independence, where BKB recently put out a scoping study on just a ~420K ounce portion of its 2.2M ounce resource:

1. A post-tax NPV of ~A$511M - more than 5x BKB's current market cap,
2. A ~64% Internal Rate of Return, and;
3. A ~1.4 year payback on ~A$119M initial capital.

Independence sits literally next door to NGM's Phoenix complex, which heap leaches at a very low AISC (all in sustaining cost).

(source)

Read our recent BKB deep dive here: BKB: Surrounded by the biggest gold mining complex in the world - and this just happened

What's next for BKB?

🔄 Gold project in Nevada

Next we want to see BKB deliver:

• ✅ COMPLETED: Mining study phases on a heap-leach development
• ✅ COMPLETED: Scoping study
• 🔲 DUE NEXT: Metallurgical testwork across all epithermal oxidation states
• 🔲 DUE AFTER: Revised Scoping Study on the full 1.2M ounce shallow resource
• 🔲 DUE LATER: Pre-Feasibility Study

Eventually when drilling is back on the cards we want to see BKB test for the following:

• 🔄 UNDERWAY: Planning for follow-up drilling north of skarn (the 580m gap to WI-002)
• 🔲 DUE NEXT: Drill testing the Rebel Trend (1km of untested strike)
• 🔲 DUE NEXT: Deeper drilling at South Hill (untested stacked lodes)

🔄 Silver project in Texas, USA

Over the next 6 months the main things we want to see are the following:

1. 🔄 Rapid restart study (CAPEX estimate)
2. 🔄 Drill program - 11 diamond holes
3. 🔄 Multi-element gold/zinc/lead assays
4. 🔲 Maiden JORC resource
5. 🔲 Scoping Study starts
6. 🔲 Restart Final Investment Decision (FID)