Broken Hill Mines sets silver record as Pinnacles feeds Rasp expansion

Record silver output lifts Rasp performance

Broken Hill Mines Limited (ASX:BHM) has produced a record 102,922 ounces of silver in the September 2026 quarter, while processing 129,084 tonnes of ore at its Rasp plant. The throughput was the highest since June 2020 and equates to an annualised 516,000 tonnes, or about 69% of the plant's 750,000-tonne-per-year capacity.

Silver production rose 7.4% from the June quarter and 148% from the September 2025 quarter. Lead output was broadly flat quarter on quarter at 2,381 tonnes but 67.7% higher year on year, while zinc production fell 9.2% quarterly to 3,024 tonnes and increased 4.9% annually.

Pinnacles reaches its first clean high-grade bench

The next leg of the production story is now moving from preparation to ore delivery. Broken Hill Mines has exposed the first full bench of clean high-grade ore at Pinnacles, with mining and trucking to Rasp underway. The restart marks the first Pinnacles operations since 2020 and gives the processing plant an additional feed source about 15 kilometres away.

Initial work focused on remnant, lower-grade material in the Edwards open pit, including void filling, pit clean-up and redesign. The company said up to 50,000 tonnes of mineralised material remains in the pit floor, although the current quarter's announcement does not provide a grade or production estimate for that material. Recent drilling had already identified broad polymetallic mineralisation supporting the Pinnacles open pit restart, with the company now preparing further assay results from open-pit and underground targets.

Plant utilisation depends on multiple ore feeds

BHM is building its expansion case around a combination of Western Mineralisation, Main Lode and Pinnacles ore, with Centenary being developed as a potential fourth feed source. The company said development and production activities continued at Main Lode and Pinnacles during the quarter, while drilling and development progressed at Centenary.

That Centenary work is significant operationally, not just geologically: BHM expects to release further drilling results and an Exploration Target in the near term, while an updated Mineral Resource Estimate for Rasp and Pinnacles is targeted for late 2026 after more than 85,000 metres of drilling. The update follows the Centenary bulk-tonnage discovery, which the company describes as a potential major new ore feed, but the current filing does not yet quantify its economic contribution.

Capital raise funds the route to 750,000 tonnes

The company says its recently completed $85 million capital raise has strengthened the balance sheet and increased its ability to accelerate exploration, development and operational work. It also points to current silver and zinc prices being above long-term averages, alongside negative treatment charges for zinc and lead concentrates, which it says result in payments back to BHM for concentrate smelting.

The immediate infrastructure milestone is the Tailings Dewatering Plant, which remains on budget and on schedule for availability in the first half of calendar 2027. BHM's stated target is full utilisation of the Rasp plant, but the announcement provides no updated production guidance, revenue, profit or cash-flow figures. Those numbers are due with the full September quarterly production and financial data in late October, after customary reconciliation.