Stavely Minerals Limited has completed a scoping study for the copper-gold-silver deposits at the Stavely Project in western Victoria, outlining an estimated pre-tax net present value at a 7% discount rate of A$818 million.

The preliminary technical and economic evaluation models a 13-year production schedule with an estimated internal rate of return of 40% and capital payback achieved in 2.5 years of production. Average annual free cash flow from first production is estimated at approximately A$110 million, with total net cash flow from operations projected at A$1.4B.

At current metal prices as of 6 August 2026, the study yields a pre-tax NPV7 of A$905 million and an IRR of 43%.

The production plan schedules 51.4 million tonnes of process plant feed from a single open pit with a 2.5-to-1 waste-to-feed ratio. The mining schedule uses an initial starter pit and two staged cutbacks designed to sequence higher-grade material from the Cayley Lode early in the mine life.

Life-of-mine all-in sustaining costs are estimated at US$3.76 per pound of copper equivalent, with the first three years averaging US$2.75 per pound. Total output over the 13-year schedule is projected at 210,000 tonnes of copper equivalent metal in concentrate, comprising 170,000 tonnes of copper, 66,000 ounces of gold, and 3.3 million ounces of silver.

The development plan features a standalone conventional process plant with a front-end crushing and grinding circuit and back-end sulphide flotation cells, operating at an annual throughput capacity of 4 million tonnes. Post-final investment decision capital costs for the process plant and mine-site infrastructure are estimated at A$333 million, which includes a 30% contingency. A further A$39 million is estimated for pre-production operations, including open pit pre-stripping, bringing total pre-production funding requirements prior to a final investment decision to approximately A$472 million.

The scoping study is based on low-accuracy technical and economic assessments with a precision level of plus or minus 35%, and no ore reserves have been declared. The company noted that potential production from underground operations has been excluded from the current production targets and financial forecasts, but may be incorporated in a subsequent study.

Read the full announcement: Thursday's Gossan Scoping Study - Robust and Long-Life