Project Vault: Unlocking Non-Dilutive Funding for Americas Gold & Silver

• Alignment with Project Vault provides a potential non-dilutive funding pathway, lowering equity dilution risk for the antimony refining joint venture.
• The 51/49 joint venture (JV) with US Antimony distributes capital, technical, and execution risk while securing domestic refining expertise and existing Department of Defense and Defense Logistics Agency relationships.
• Feedstock certainty from the Galena Complex, supplemented by third-party contracts and the Crescent Mine acquisition, reduces throughput and utilisation risk for the planned facility.
• Permitted land, adjacent infrastructure, and prior facility construction benchmarks shorten development timelines and reduce regulatory risk, while vertical integration into antimony refining enhances earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), free cash flow, and overall project economics.
• Residual uncertainties remain around government funding structure, 90-day supply agreement finalisation, and construction start contingent on budget approval.

Critical Minerals Policy & the Role of Financing Catalysts

Government intervention is increasingly shaping financing outcomes in critical minerals, particularly for downstream processing assets where capital expenditure (capex) is significant, and revenues have historically been tied to volatile spot markets. Policy tools such as price floors, structured offtakes, grants, and cost-sharing can improve internal rate of return (IRR) assumptions, lower cost of capital, and unlock non-dilutive funding for projects with domestic mine-to-metal alignment. Americas Gold & Silver’s antimony refining joint venture (JV) with US Antimony sits within this framework under Project Vault, a US initiative targeting 50 million pounds of domestic supply plus 40 million pounds for allied nations, designed to stabilise pricing and secure strategic supply chains while converting a previously discounted by-product into an integrated, policy-supported revenue stream. This analysis evaluates measurable de-risking across technical, feedstock, permitting, and capital factors, and the execution milestones that remain. 

As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Americas Gold & Silver, Paul Andre Huet stated: 

“We will build a new refining structure. It's a leaching structure in Idaho. On our land next to our mill, we will have this new facility whereby all our concentrate will be leached through, and we will remove the antimony before we send it off.”

Historical Risk Profile & JV Risk-Sharing Structure

Prior to the joint venture, Americas Gold & Silver’s antimony exposure was constrained by its position in the processing chain rather than by geological risk. At the Galena Complex, antimony is produced alongside silver and copper, but the absence of domestic refining capacity meant the company sold slag at a fraction of refined market value, creating structural margin leakage and earnings volatility. The multi-step route of crushing, milling, transport, slag conversion, and third-party refining added logistical cost, geopolitical exposure, and supply chain fragility at a time when domestic processing has become a federal priority. Balance sheet resources were directed toward restoring mine infrastructure and operational optimisation, delaying downstream investment, while the approximately $50 million capex for a standalone facility represented a material funding hurdle and limited access to government critical minerals support without an established refining partner. For investors, the key risks at this stage were financial, operational, and market-structure related rather than geological.

The 51/49 joint venture with US Antimony distributes capital, technical, and execution risk across complementary operators, with proportional funding obligations, shared governance through a six-member committee, and ring-fenced liabilities supported by fair-value buy/sell provisions. The refining partner assumes the operator role, bringing proven processing capability, military-spec metal production experience, and a track record of comparable facility construction, reducing metallurgical and schedule uncertainty. Locating the plant on already-permitted land adjacent to the existing mill at Galena lowers permitting scope, infrastructure requirements, and development timelines relative to a greenfield build. Structurally, the JV lowers upfront capital intensity, improves financing eligibility, and enhances execution certainty, key determinants of whether a downstream processing project is financeable under current policy conditions.

Government Alignment as a Financing Catalyst

Project Vault, a $12 billion US initiative targeting a 50 million-pound domestic antimony stockpile plus 40 million pounds for allied nations, introduces a policy-backed pathway that can materially alter financing outcomes through price stabilisation and strategic supply security. For the joint venture, the integrated mine-to-metal model at the Galena Complex meets federal criteria for critical minerals support, enabling eligibility for non-dilutive funding via grants, loans, or cost-sharing following submission of a formal white paper, while US Antimony’s approximately $245 million Department of Defense and Defense Logistics Agency agreements and markup structures provide institutional credibility and potential revenue visibility. 

On the comparative effectiveness of the joint submission versus independent approaches, Huet noted: 

“If I had to put this white paper in on my own, or he'd have put it in on his own, it was not nearly as effective to the government as us submitting it together.”

Huet described Project Vault's price stabilisation objective and its relevance to project economics:

“That new Project Vault that the US has put in, you got $12 billion coming into this stockpile of critical minerals. That's quite important because it's trying to take the volatility out of the pricing. Talking about a price floor of around $20 a pound for antimony. Right now, we're at $15. We're still really good in the money right now with that one.” 

Feedstock Security & Project Execution Confidence

Downstream refining economics are highly sensitive to utilisation rates, making feedstock security a primary valuation driver. The Galena Complex provides an estimated antimony supply horizon of more than 80 years within a multi-metal ore system producing silver and copper, with antimony recovered as a by-product at effectively zero marginal mining cost, supporting structurally low unit costs for downstream processing. This internal supply is expected to be supplemented by four to five third-party contracts, creating surplus capacity that reduces underutilisation risk, while the acquisition of the nearby Crescent Mine adds tetrahedrite ore and future production optionality.

Engineering has commenced, with budget approval as the primary gating item for construction start, followed by a targeted 18-month build window and a 90-day deadline to finalise supply agreements. A comparable facility, previously constructed by the refining partner in Bolivia in approximately six months, provides a third-party benchmark for construction sequencing, with the planned Idaho facility estimated at approximately $50 million in capital costs. Permitting risk is partially mitigated, with schedule risk now linked primarily to funding confirmation and contracting milestones rather than regulatory approvals.

Economic Impact & Residual Risk Profile

The transition from slag-based by-product sales to refined antimony bar production shifts revenue from discounted third-party pricing to the full value of refined metal through vertical integration. Antimony, recovered at negligible incremental cost alongside primary silver and copper, delivers margin expansion without increasing all-in sustaining cost (AISC), allowing improved realised pricing to flow directly into earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) and free cash flow while adding multi-metal revenue diversification and reducing earnings volatility.

The joint venture reduces technical risk through an experienced refining operator, secures long-life feedstock from the Galena Complex with supplementary third-party supply, limits permitting scope via existing permitted land, lowers capital intensity through shared capital expenditure and potential non-dilutive government funding, and improves market access through Project Vault-linked offtake and price stabilisation discussions. Residual risk centres on the final structure and timing of government funding, completion of fair-market supply agreements within 90 days to avoid construction halt rights, and exposure to open-market antimony pricing until a formal offtake and price floor are confirmed, with execution dependent on sequential capital and contracting milestones rather than geological or metallurgical factors.

The Investment Thesis for Americas Gold & Silver

• Government-aligned projects, such as Project Vault, can access non-dilutive funding through grants, loans, and cost-sharing, lowering equity risk and improving weighted average cost of capital relative to market-financed alternatives.
• The 51/49 joint venture with US Antimony distributes capital, technical, and execution risk, preserving majority ownership while enhancing financing eligibility and reducing potential cost overruns.
• Long-life feedstock from the Galena Complex, supplemented by third-party supply contracts and the Crescent Mine acquisition, underpins downstream processing economics, internal rate of return stability, and plant utilisation.
• Permitted infrastructure, existing mill adjacency, and prior facility construction benchmarks materially shorten development timelines, reduce regulatory risk, and compress the capital-at-risk period for investors.
• Vertical integration into antimony refining captures previously stranded by-product margin, enhancing earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation and free cash flow without increasing all-in sustaining cost for primary silver and copper production.
• Policy-backed offtake frameworks and potential price floors stabilise revenue, reduce earnings volatility, and improve reliability of project financing through construction and commissioning.

Americas Gold & Silver’s integrated mine-to-metal joint venture combines long-life feedstock, experienced operational partners, permitted infrastructure, and government alignment to materially de-risk project execution while enhancing economic returns, positioning the company as a strategically valuable domestic critical minerals supplier.

TL;DR Summary

Americas Gold & Silver’s antimony refining joint venture with US Antimony, under Project Vault, converts a discounted by-product into integrated, policy-supported revenue. Government alignment provides access to non-dilutive funding and price floor mechanisms, while a 51/49 JV structure shares capital, technical, and execution risk. Long-life feedstock from the Galena Complex and supplementary third-party contracts reduce throughput risk, and permitted infrastructure, along with prior facility benchmarks, shorten timelines. The project de-risks execution and capital exposure, with residual uncertainties limited to government funding, supply agreements, and construction start.

FAQs (AI-Generated)