Santana Minerals Fast-Tracks Bendigo-Ophir as Gold Price Surge Boosts Project NPV

Santana Minerals Ltd. ( (AU:SMI) ) has shared an announcement.

Santana Minerals reported strong progress in advancing its Bendigo-Ophir Gold Project toward construction targeted for mid-2026, securing a 30-year mining permit over the Rise & Shine and satellite deposits, completing and gaining acceptance of its fast-track approvals application with New Zealand’s Environmental Protection Authority, consolidating key freehold land, and pushing ahead with early site works, operational readiness, and project finance preparations while maintaining A$85 million in cash and no debt. High-grade drill results at the RAS North Honeypot zone and a major step-out intercept extending mineralisation down plunge, combined with a sharp rise in the gold price that lifts the project’s estimated after-tax NPV6.5 to A$2.77 billion and materially improves returns, underscore the project’s growing scale, economic robustness and strategic significance as one of New Zealand’s most advanced undeveloped gold assets, with implications for accelerated development and enhanced value for stakeholders.

The most recent analyst rating on (AU:SMI) stock is a Hold with a A$1.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Santana Minerals Ltd. stock, see the AU:SMI Stock Forecast page.

More about Santana Minerals Ltd.

Santana Minerals Ltd is a gold exploration and development company focused on the Bendigo-Ophir Gold Project in Central Otago, New Zealand. The project is planned as a large-scale, long-life operation combining open pit and underground mining to supply a 1.2Mtpa CIL processing plant, with potential expansion to 1.8Mtpa, targeting production of roughly 1.25 million ounces of gold over an initial 14-year mine life and steady-state output of about 120,000 ounces per year.

Average Trading Volume: 1,012,531

Technical Sentiment Signal: Buy

Current Market Cap: A$979M

See more insights into SMI stock on TipRanks’ Stock Analysis page.