122Moz Silver Resource Anchors Aftermath’s Berenguela Project | Mike Williams

Aftermath Silver (TSXV: AAG) is advancing its Berenguela silver-copper-manganese project in Puno, Peru, where Founder and Executive Chairman Mike Williams says the deposit has grown into one of the larger undeveloped silver resources in the sector. Speaking with Kitco Mining at PDAC 2026, Williams said the project hosts “122 million ounces of silver measured and indicated” with “a further 20 million in inferred,” alongside about 870 million lb. of copper and roughly 3 million tons of manganese.

Williams said the company is preparing a pre-feasibility study expected later this year or in Q1 2027 and is targeting early silver output from the open-pit project. “Our goal is to end up between producing four to 5 million ounces of silver annually,” he said. Copper and manganese could provide byproduct credits that lower silver costs, while metallurgical work is advancing to produce high-purity manganese suitable for EV batteries. The company also plans drilling this year to follow up on a high-grade copper zone and expand silver mineralization across the deposit.

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 To learn more about Aftermath Silver, visit: https://aftermathsilver.com/

00:27 - Why Aftermath Silver Acquired the Berenguela Project
01:09 - Manganese Breakthrough and Hydrometallurgy Processing
03:02 - Berenguela Resource Growth and 122Moz Silver Resource
04:21 - Battery-Grade Manganese Potential for EV Supply Chain
06:55 - PFS Strategy and 4–5Moz Annual Silver Production Target
08:05 - Silver Price Assumptions and Project Stress Testing
09:39 - Silver Leverage, Market Cap Sensitivity, and Infrastructure
11:42 - Copper Exploration Upside and High-Grade Drill Results
13:16 - Peru Politics, Mining Permits and Community Relations
19:36 - Water Management and Ore Processing Strategy
21:32 - 2026 Catalysts: Drilling, Metallurgy, and PFS Timeline
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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Hello, welcome to Kitco Mining with me, Paul Harris at the 2026 PDAC in Toronto, in Canada. Today we're talking about silver exploration in Peru, and I have great pleasure to be joined by Mike Williams, founder and executive chair of Aftermath Silver, which trades on the TSXB under the ticker AAG. Mike, welcome to Kitco. Paul, thanks for having me on. Now you're exploring the Barangayla Silver Copper Manganese project in Punio in Peru. Let's start with a bit about the background of the project and how you came to acquire it.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Well, we we uh had a project in Chile and we still do called Chaya Coyo. It's a very good project. Uh Chayacoyo is 35 million ounces, measured and indicated, uh further 10 million in inferred. But the opportunity was presented itself uh to purchase the Berenguila project, as you've mentioned in in Puno, Peru from uh Silver Standard Resources. There was a couple reasons why it was available. They were in the process of merging with the uh Turkish company, Alessar, and uh also they were looking at getting out of Peru. They wanted to focus on other jurisdictions. But I I think the third reason was, and when you talk to them, you you mentioned the metal manganese. Now, manganese is interesting in the sense that historically, if you had manganese associated with an uh ore body deposit, it made it difficult to uh get decent recoveries out, which made it hard to demonstrate economics. But the technology has changed over the last 20 years. We can use a process called hydrometallurgy. So we were confident that we had a methodology to deal with the uh manganese, which would allow us to get the silver out, get the copper out, and then uh to produce an economic manganese product. The other thing that we quickly recognized was we were in a different environment for manganese in that there's a lot of it in the world. It's mostly feral manganese for the steel industry. We had a manganese at Berenguilla that can be used for EV car batteries. So we had the idea we would spend the time and the money on metallurgy needed at Berenguilla because the deposit was known about for over a hundred years. You know, roughly 2% had been mined through artesianal miners. But we saw it as a great opportunity, and uh the CEO and I, uh Ralph Rushton, were big fans of silver and the fact that 65% of it was now used on an industrial side as well as the financial. So we saw the opportunity there. And the other key thing at Berenguila for us was open pit. Well, we'll we'll doing a pre-feasibility study, we'll demonstrate it's an open pit, but it comes right to surface. There's very few open pit silver operations, and and our triacoyo, coincidentally, in Chile, is also open pit. So that was our business model. Now, one once we got into it, we realized how how much potential it had to the point now where we've just updated the 43101. We're looking at uh 122 million ounces of silver measured and indicated, with a further 20 million in inferred, still open, and close to a a billion pounds of copper, I think it's 870 million pounds in measured and indicated, and there's three million tons of manganese, which potentially could turn into 10 million tons of manganese, high purity manganese for the EV battery. We could be one of the biggest manganese suppliers globally for that industry. So it it it kind of all made sense. Uh it was just a it was a uh a case of timing. Now I'll tell you, I'll tell you a story. When we started negotiating with Silver Standard, silver was$16. By the time we finished, over only a period of 30 days, silver had moved up to$22. That was a large move back then. We were worried that you know maybe they're gonna change their mind now that silver's gone through 20. Silver most of my career was between 10 and 15. So our timing was impeccable.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Well, congratulations there. Um several things to follow up on from your initial comments there, Mike. Uh, what's the difference between manganese that's used for the steel additive and manganese that's suitable for EV batteries?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Uh essentially the the what we call the feral manganese used in the steel industry is hosted in silica. And where uh for to work in an EV battery, there's two key tenets. One, you have to be able to get it to a 99.9% purity level, number one. And and number two, it can only come from an oxide or a carbonate rocks. And our deposit is oxide. You need that chemistry to work with the battery chemistry in order to work. So you know, just because you you do have a carbonate or oxide doesn't mean it's going to work. Now, we have demonstrated, we've press released it on bench levels, we can get to 99.9. We're currently expanding that up right now.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Okay, now you mentioned that uh you acquired the project from Silver Standards. Silver Standard, obviously a big name, perhaps one of the biggest names in the silver industry historically. Um I imagine that come came with uh quite a lot of work done and work done to a relatively high scale. There was a lot of drill holes in it.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

And and the uh we we knew the geological model, we just had to expand on it. There's now, I I think there's close to 42 kilometers of drilling, four forty thousand meters of drilling. So the yeah, a lot of the drilling's done. We've done uh a lot ourselves, but yeah, it it and I I should just back up a sec. I think Silver Standard wanted to become a gold company and not just focus on silver. So that there was the real opportunity. And and you know, as they they they say, Paul, nature abores a vacuum. And we saw a bit of a vacuum in the silver space because a lot of the previous silver companies were becoming gold companies. And and you know, um as they say, you know, timing is everything, and with silver now trading where it is, we we look very smart. But I I never would have believed silver was gonna trade at these prices when we we picked it up. But our largest shareholder, Eric Sprott, who uh has 25% of the company, uh had you know was a lot more bullish. He said, Look, silver's gonna go north of 100. He said, I I am still of the opinion one day it could hit 200, and he still thinks that I believe. So I'm more in Eric's camp now than I was when I started, where you know, Ralph and I would be uh doing cartwheels if silver went over 30.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Well, I think Eric's broad said relatively recently that he still sees a$200 per ounce silver price out there. Um you mentioned uh PFS for an open pit. You have a resource of let's say 145 million ounces in all categories. What are you looking at in terms of the open pit and the potential production scenario for the project?

SPEAKER_00 7:14

That that's being worked on right now. What we are looking at though is I think given the current metals environment, we want to focus on extracting as much silver in the first five years as possible. So our our goal is to end up between producing four to five million ounces of silver annually. And then we're just uh in another six months I'll be able to tell you what what production rate that will be. And then we will also be producing copper, and then what we'll do with the manganese, we'll put it aside, and when the manganese market starts to really take off, we'll start doing our off-take agreements there. But we can produce uh silver and copper in in Peru, and we'll either have the manganese going to China or it will be processed in the United States if we're build a processing facility there.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

I'm not sure we're allowed to say the C-word anymore given uh what's happening in the critical minimal space. But uh the uh part aside from me being pedantic, let's talk about silver pricing. We we've spoken a lot in that during our conversation, Mike, about how how how the silver price has moved. Uh ended 2025 hitting three digits, it's pulled back. Since then, we're about 80 to 90 dollars per ounce at the moment. As you're doing a PFS, what where do you where do you pitch the silver price in that to reflect a uh a viable base case that perhaps doesn't have such a wide delta with where the spot price is, but obviously um showing that you have a sustainable business?

SPEAKER_00 8:41

It's a good question. We we would actually stress test below 30 to make sure it would work. Do I think it's going below 30? No, I don't. What we're doing we're looking at internally though is is$50 silver. I think I I don't expect silver to return to those levels, but it it has to be something that A, the bankers uh view as as reasonable and feasible, and I think$50 silver, you know, uh by the end of this year, I I think a lot of people will be using it in their financial models. Now you can show through the sensitivities what happens at$75.80. You know, we we talked off-air about the leverage that silver affords at these prices. It's it's it's fantastic. And and I think if you can maintain a reasonable all-in sustaining cost, uh call it$20.22, and if silver is trading at north of$75, companies like us uh with large resources should be able to deliver tech-like uh returns. And we've never seen that in the commodity space.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Well, I want to sort of press you on that a little bit, Mike, if I may, because one of the reasons people invest in silver companies, in silver stocks, is because of that leverage you mentioned, whereby a 10% increase in the silver price coming a 20, 30, 40, 50% improvement in performance. Do you have a sense yet of what that potentially could be for you?

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Well, we're I I would say if you we we've got a$400 million market cap right now, and 80% of it is probably silver. So whenever silver moves, we move significantly. I think we're one of the largest silver uh development stories globally. So we're kind of known as a bit of a uh canary in the coal mine for silver. So I think it's very significant for us. But what's interesting, because we have copper, because we have manganese, they can offset our silver costs if if we look at it like that. So you know, you're gonna have a very low silver all-in sustaining because of the polymetallic nature of the deposit. That's gonna be special. And that's what we're looking forward to is getting our uh pre-feasibility out, and I can demonstrate those economics. You know, we're we're hosted in infrastructure as well. I you know, the railway I joke is a seven-iron away. It's three kilometers. It's no seven iron for anybody, but but but it you can see. Yeah, uh Donald Trump would say it's a seven-iron away. But it it's close enough that uh, you know, it it helps with we're close to power. We we've got uh a mining town close by that you can see uh potentially from our from our headframe. So it's got a lot going for it, and it's in a mining region in Peru. Uh it's at 42,000 meters, which isn't you know, it's not high by Andean standards, but it's still high. But because we have the rail, it's it's easier to deal with.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Now you mentioned that the manganese and the copper could mean you you get some very good byproduct credits there to you know reduce the all-in-sustaining cost of the silver ounce. Will that manganese and copper potentially uh uh open up the possibility of off-take financing to really help with the financing of the project?

SPEAKER_00 11:56

100%. That that's one of the things we'll be we'll be looking at. Uh we've already had you know several copper guys looking at at what we have now. The it's it's a carbonate replacement system, so there is an engine or the uh volcanic activity has come from somewhere to form this deposit. And usually it's not too far away. Now, as we've moved east on the project, our zinc grade has dropped and our copper grade's increased. In fact, the the last hole that we put out in the east on copper, 150 meters of 1.2% copper, 289 grams of silver with 7% manganese. That's the equivalent of a 5% copper hole. But it had intrusive rocks as well as carbonate replacement. That tells the geologists that okay, maybe we're getting closer to the source. So we're gonna follow up on that, and then we've got scarn mineralization at a different area of the deposit, four kilometers away, that's drill tested this year, and we're seeing well, you know, one to two percent at surface will follow up with drilling on that. So we we've we do have a lot of uh expiration to come, but at the at the end of the day, we've got enough copper and silver and manganese to we think to be exceedingly robust, but once again, I I will say that our uh pre-feasibility should be out later this year or Q1 of 27.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Okay. Uh I want to sort of take a step back more on looking at some some let's say environmental factors. Uh silver developers outside Mexico, I think, have received a noticeable bump at the start of this year due to the violent incidents happening in Mexico. Um, what what are investors telling you? Are they repositioning into stories such as yours in Peru?

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Well, we've always been one of the biggest traders, you know, in any commodity on the TSX venture. We trade anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 million shares, you know, I think over the last six months. We're I I think we're a top five trader on that exchange. So we we've seen a bump. We're trading some days three million shares. So I I think the answer is yes. I don't know if they're coming out of Mexico and going to us. Our our issue has always been, I think if you we're de-risked geologically, in my opinion, based on the amount of ounces in our 43101 and tons. Uh I think from an engineering point, being that you can see the deposit when you're on site comes right to surface. So from an engineering point, it should be relatively easy to open pit. Uh, we'll know the strip ratio once a PFS is done, but you've got to think it's gonna be very favorable. So I I think we've got a lot of things going for us. I think with us, we've got to demonstrate we can make them the manganese work through the metallurgy. So far, uh we're at 99.9, as I mentioned, on the purity level, and our recoveries with Hydromet are gonna be in the high 80s, you know, low 90s. So we've crossed that uh Rubicon. So it's just a case of coming out with uh more conclusive test work in the PFS, that everything works, and we have a more importantly, we have a strategy to monetize, but make no mistake about it, the focus is gonna be on silver copper, then we can deal with the manganese when it comes on stream. I I always say it's like this uh holding our company aftermath is like holding a unit of a financing. The silver is the share, the warrant is the copper and the manganese, and they they will give you tremendous leverage, and you're basically getting them for, in my opinion, next to nothing.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

I know we all say we're undervalued, but we'll talk about valuation later on. Now, in in addition to what's happening in Mexico potentially being good for silver developers in Peru, uh I would argue that the Highlander Silga buying the Bear Creek silver for the Karani project, which isn't too far from you. I imagine that's uh been a big positive as well. Uh, Peru hasn't had the security incidents, but it has had presidential rotation, and the country's got a new interim president following the removal from office recently of uh Jose Here by Congress. There's gonna be presidential elections later this year. The the political situation in Peru, I think to be fair, is a little bit messy. Does that have any impact on the mining sector or not?

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Uh that that's a good question. Um, it did. When Castillo was elected, what was that four years ago, four and a half years ago? Castillo was viewed hard left. Peru doesn't normally go hard left. And they did in this case, and I uh you know if you read the tea leaves, I think it was largely because a lot of Latin American countries, including Peru, were coming out of the COVID era, and it was uh it was very hard on them, a lot more than it was on the West. So there was a backlash against the whoever was in power, they went the opposite way. Castillo took advantage of it, and and we lost, I would say, 40 to 50 million in valuation over six months as capital fled put Peru. But then Castillo was replaced to your point, and there's been a lot of presidents. And and mining ministers. And mining ministers. But but I will say this if you if you look at the Peruvian uh electoral system, a lot more power is given to their Congress. Their Congress tends to be very centrist. Castillo didn't do anything to damage the Peruvian mining industry. But what was going on, there was a lot of roadblocks at key mining operations, Los Bombos. So when Castillo was praised, the the woman that replaced him in that party, who's since been replaced, uh had said, enough, we need to guarantee the miners access to the ports and to their properties. The the army was in and cleaned up the roadblocks. So I think that situation is behind us at where we are at Berenguila, we haven't had one issue and we have the road pretty well goes right through our project, uh fortunately. But we deal with a stable Congress. But you know, Paul, one of the keys is in this environment in the last 20 years, you can't just deal with, in our case, Lima. You've got to have the local people on side. And uh, you know, the per person heading our community relations is an indigenous Peruvian, um, has people speaking the local language there, and that helps because if you don't have the local people on side, you're going to have permitting issues. And and and I've I've been consistent saying this pretty well my whole career. If if someone tells you they don't have permitting issues, I think they're lying or being disingenuous. We all have permitting issues, it's how you manage them. And the key thing, in my opinion, especially in Latin America, dealing with the local people, make sure they're happy because they will push back against the NGOs that don't like mining and try-stop projects. So Peru has actually been pretty good for us. We'd like to see the permitting time drop from 12 months for drill permits to something like six. And the government keeps promising us that's gonna happen, but we can live with 12, prefer six, and I think our construction permits. You know, as we ask in the mining industry, we want to see consistency and certainty. If we do everything properly, we'll be able to permit, and that's what we do see in Peru. And you know, I I think it's 13% of Peruvian GDP comes from mining. And they say, look, mining is imperative to our economy. So it's a different environment than say some of these other areas. Uh for instance, Mexico. That's a that's an outlier on the negative. But uh Peru, Chile are my top two regions in Latin America.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

But what would you say would be the key permitting issue for the communities where where you're operating? You mentioned there's indigenous people there. Um that to me suggests it's probably going to be largely the agricultural sector, and so therefore, water is perhaps gonna be the the the hot topic for them.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Yeah, I I think if you if you I were to show you a map of uh Berenguela, you would see that there are river runs uh through uh the the property, which we which they allow us to draw on from drilling when we we get the permits. But I think the the issue there, if I'm looking at a crystal ball, is is water extrusion. If uh and and we'll be processed, you know, potentially processing it at altitude uh elevation, people could push back on that and say, well, if something were ever to happen to a tailings facility at Berenguilla, the watershed, and I believe it's 250 kilometers away in that region, would drain into Lake Titicaca. And in practice, we would over-engineer, and I think it would be fine. But you don't want anyone to think, well, what if it's not fine? We've had people living on on that lake, families for thousands of years, fishing. So it's it's San Crossing to Peru and Bolivia. They share the lake. So I meant I mentioned the railway earlier. We'll be putting our ore, it looks like on the rail or the road and going down to lower elevation to the port. That's where we process. So we get away from the environmental issues there, and I I think that helps us a lot. Like uh I'm very lucky to have the rail and the road there, it makes a huge difference. You know, the the CapEx isn't going to be small here. You know, it's probably anywhere on the low side, 400 uh million, maybe up to 750 million, depending on how we uh structure the silver uh processing, copper, and manganese.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Okay. Um we've covered a lot of ground during our conversation. Mike, what are some of the key catalysts for our viewers to watch out for this year from the company?

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Uh there'll be uh drilling. I I mentioned those key targets that we'll be drilling, uh, both following up on that high high grade copper hole. Uh, we'll be doing some infill silver drilling, focusing on a silver zone that we we are. Potentially looking at bringing on stream first. Those drill results should be out 30-45 days. PFS is out later this year. That's what the engineers tell me. So that's Q1 in my book. You know how engineers aren't. But as long as it's good work, I'm fine with Q1. And then we're going to drill test the scar and zone. So a lot of drilling. And also some more metallurgical work will be uh will be press released.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Excellent. Well, I look forward to hearing about that as and when these things come out. Mike Williams, thank you very much for joining me today. Thanks for having me on. And we have a lot more to come for the 2026 PDAC in Toronto, Canada. So stay tuned and hit that subscribe button. And don't forget, Aftermath Silver trades on the TSXB under the ticket AAG. I'm Paul Harris, and this is Kiko Mining.