Stavely Minerals has outlined a potentially valuable 13-year copper-gold-silver project, but its latest annual report makes clear that funding remains the immediate constraint. The company ended June with A$3.1 million in cash and an auditor-flagged material uncertainty over its ability to continue as a going concern.
- 60Mt mineral resource at 0.58% CuEq
- A$817.7 million pre-tax NPV7 Scoping Study
- 13-year, 4Mtpa open-pit development concept
- A$3.1 million cash and A$3.6 million operating outflow
- Further funding required to maintain activities
A large development case meets a small cash balance
Stavely Minerals Limited (ASX:SVY) is presenting shareholders with a striking mismatch: a proposed copper-gold-silver project carrying a pre-tax NPV7 of A$817.7 million, alongside just A$3.1 million in cash at 30 June 2026. The company’s annual report says the Thursday’s Gossan Scoping Study supports a potential 13-year operation, but its auditor also highlighted a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt on Stavely’s ability to continue as a going concern without further fundraising or alternative finance.
The study envisages a single open pit feeding a 4Mtpa processing plant, with 51.4Mt of process plant feed and total capital costs of about A$471.7 million, including pre-production mining. Forecast pre-tax returns include a 39.9% IRR, A$1.39 billion of net cash generated over the mine life and payback of 10 quarters from first ore. Those figures are study outputs, not an approved mine or a feasibility-stage investment case.
Resource growth reshapes Thursday’s Gossan
The foundation for the study is a 2026 total Mineral Resource Estimate of 60Mt at 0.58% copper equivalent, containing 280kt of copper, 170koz of gold and 5.4Moz of silver. Compared with 2022, tonnage rose 113%, while contained copper increased 31%, gold 67% and silver 69%.
That expansion is not simply a higher-grade story. The resource’s average copper grade fell to 0.46% from 0.75% in the comparison table, as the updated estimate captured substantial lower-grade material within an optimised open-pit shell. The high-grade Cayley Lode remains the more valuable component for gold and silver, while the larger chalcocite-enriched blanket adds scale but contains comparatively little gold and silver. The current study also excludes any potential underground production.
Exploration adds three gold targets
Stavely spent A$2.65 million on exploration during the year, with work concentrated in western Victoria. At Fairview North, RC drilling extended shallow gold mineralisation beyond 300 metres, including results such as 59 metres at 1.31g/t gold and 14 metres at 2.14g/t gold. Fairview South produced a standout first hole of 40 metres at 1.96g/t gold, although a follow-up hole did not replicate those widths and grades.
Freddy’s Find remains earlier-stage but potentially significant: reconnaissance drilling intersected gold-silver mineralisation beneath roughly 50 metres of basalt cover, while a deep diamond hole displayed features interpreted as consistent with the upper portions of an intermediate-sulphidation epithermal system. Assays from that diamond hole were still pending at year-end, leaving the exploration narrative dependent on results that are not yet available.
Funding remains the decisive hurdle
Stavely raised roughly A$4 million through its April and June 2026 placement, while reporting a net loss of A$3.70 million and operating cash outflow of A$3.63 million. Its directors state that additional capital will be needed, and the financial statements explicitly warn that failure to secure funding could force a reduction in exploration and other activities. The report also records A$1.78 million of tenement expenditure commitments for 2026-27.
That financing requirement sits ahead of any potential construction decision. Stavely must still progress preliminary pre-feasibility work, validate the study’s mining, processing and cost assumptions, and determine how much of the resource can be converted into higher-confidence material. The next meaningful test is therefore not only whether the project economics survive deeper technical scrutiny, but whether the company can fund that scrutiny without materially increasing dilution.
Bottom Line?
The resource and Scoping Study have given Stavely a much larger development narrative, but the near-term investment question is how it finances the long road from study economics to a fundable project.
Questions in the middle?
- How much additional capital will Stavely need before completing pre-feasibility and advancing permitting work?
- Can the Thursday’s Gossan study’s economics withstand changes in copper prices, operating costs, recoveries and capital requirements?
- Will follow-up drilling convert Fairview and Freddy’s Find’s early results into resources capable of influencing the development case?