Moon River updates Davidson project study with C$1.23 billion after-tax NPV

Moon River Moly announced an updated preliminary economic assessment for its Davidson molybdenum-copper-tungsten project near Smithers, British Columbia, on October 22. The study reports a base-case after-tax net present value of C$1.23 billion discounted at 8%; the same modeled base-case cash flows produce an internal rate of return of 33%. It models an underground mine with a 20-year life and throughput of 10,000 tonnes per day.

The updated assessment changes several parts of the earlier December 2025 study. Moon River says the tungsten resource classification was upgraded from inferred to measured and indicated, capital and operating costs were updated, and tungsten recovery was modelled using flotation rather than gravity concentration. The company reports annual tungsten production 350% above the previous assessment, attributing the increase to the revised recovery approach and higher modelled recovery and concentrate grades.

The base case estimates initial capital of C$750.1 million, including C$118.5 million in contingency. It forecasts average annual output of 6.02 million kilograms of molybdenum, 679,600 kilograms of copper and 686 tonnes of tungsten trioxide. Average cash cost is stated as C$12.75 per kilogram of molybdenum, or C$5.78 per pound, net of copper and tungsten credits; all-in sustaining cost is C$13.08 per kilogram, or C$5.93 per pound. These are study estimates, not operating results.

The reported after-tax NPV and IRR use long-term metal price assumptions, including US$23.41 per pound of molybdenum, US$4.65 per pound of copper and US$43.25 per pound of tungsten trioxide, with a stated Canadian-to-US dollar exchange rate of 0.74. A separate illustrative case uses average September 2026 spot prices and a different exchange-rate assumption; it produces a C$3.0 billion after-tax NPV and 57% IRR. Moon River labels this an illustrative scenario, distinct from the base case, rather than the study’s principal valuation.

Davidson is an underground deposit inside Hudson Bay Mountain, about nine kilometres northwest of Smithers. The assessment proposes underground processing and paste backfill, with dry-stacked tailings, as design choices intended to reduce the surface footprint. The company said it had started baseline environmental and further engineering studies and was speaking with First Nations about potential impacts, mitigation and economic opportunities.

The PEA is preliminary: its economic results depend on the assumptions in the study and do not establish that the project will be built or achieve the modelled outcomes. The company said only measured and indicated resources were used in the mine plan and economic analysis; inferred resources were excluded. A technical report was expected to be filed on SEDAR+ within 45 days, while Moon River said it intended to advance to a pre-feasibility study in the first half of 2027.