SSR Mining's Hod Maden Economics Look Tight — But the Deal Still Cuts the Wrong Way

The headline number from SSR Mining's updated Hod Maden technical report is the cost line. The video lays out cash costs of $535 per ounce of gold and an all-in sustaining cost (AISC — what it really costs to produce an ounce) of $590. With gold trading well above $4,000, that implies a per-ounce margin north of $4,000 — economics that most gold projects today can't touch.

But the project itself is the easy half of the story. The corporate structure is where it gets awkward.

## The deal: SSR Mining holds 40% of Hod Maden and does 100% of the work

The video walks through how SSR ended up here. In 2023, the company agreed to pay Lydia Mines up to $270 million for a 40% interest in the Turkish copper-gold project. An initial $120 million bought a 10% stake — and, crucially, made SSR the operator. The remaining 30% is earned on the first anniversary of commercial construction.

The trade-off SSR accepted is simple: it carries the exploration, development, construction, and operating burden, but only collects 40% of the cash flow. As the host puts it, that's a lot of work for a minority slice of the pie.

## The asset: a low-capex, high-margin underground copper-gold mine next to an existing SSR operation

The host highlights two reasons SSR chased Hod Maden in the first place. First, location: the project sits in Türkiye, near SSR's existing Coppler mine, which means existing regional infrastructure and operating know-how. Second, a 2021 feasibility study pegged Hod Maden as one of the highest-margin, lowest-capital-intensity undeveloped copper-gold projects in the sector.

The new technical report refreshes those economics in 2026 dollars. Key plan numbers from the video:

- Underground operation using long-hole stoping and drift-and-fill mining (mining methods that pull ore from a sequence of voids cut into the rock) - 2,200 tons per day average mining rate - 13-year mine life - 159,000 ounces of gold and 21 million pounds of copper per year on average - ~189,000 ounces of gold equivalent at base-case metal prices

Processing flows through a mill-float-regrind-cleaner-float circuit (a multi-stage grinding and flotation setup that separates valuable minerals from waste rock), producing a single concentrate grading 113 g/t gold and 22% copper. Recoveries are 87% for gold and 97% for copper. Tailings go partly to underground paste backfill, with the rest in a dedicated storage facility.

Two details make those capex numbers more credible than typical feasibility-stage estimates. First, the project is fully permitted — no permit risk waiting on the other side of a construction decision, and the host repeats this point for emphasis. Second, roughly 85% of the go-forward costs are either contracted or based on recent tenders, and with sunk costs included, about 91% of the figures are described as firm.

## Capex and unit economics

From the video:

- Go-forward capital costs: $910 million, of which $304 million is site and regional infrastructure - Sustaining capital: $75 million over the life of mine - Closure costs: $14 million - Cash cost: $535/oz of gold - AISC: $590/oz of gold - Implied margin at current gold prices: more than $4,000/oz (on a gold-equivalent by-product basis)

## Project economics, on a 100% basis

The video presents these figures as if SSR owned the whole project:

- NPV (net present value — today's value of all the future cash, discounted for risk) of $1.7 billion after tax at $3,100 gold - IRR (internal rate of return — the discount rate at which the project's NPV hits zero) of 39% at $3,167 gold - At $4,117 gold (roughly 30% higher): NPV rises to $2.4 billion, IRR to 52%

The host concedes the IRR is built on a metal price the market isn't paying today, but still uses the sweep to show how levered the project is to gold.

## The catch

The video ends where it started: with the deal structure. On a 100% basis the project pencils beautifully. On the actual basis — 40% to SSR, 60% to Lydia — every dollar in the table above gets split. The host argues that, with the same management bandwidth, SSR could pursue a wholly owned asset and keep all the reward.

For context, the video notes that Royal Gold last year paid $3.7 billion to acquire Sandstorm Gold and Horizon Copper, partly to grab a 30% non-operating royalty interest in Hod Maden. If a royalty buyer valued a 30% non-operating stake at that scale, the implied value to SSR of its 40% operator stake — including all the construction risk and capital deployment — looks different again.

## What an investor should take away

The video makes a clear case that Hod Maden is a high-quality asset with tight costs, clean permitting, and a long life. The construction decision, originally expected in 2024, is now likely in the coming months at the time of the video. If SSR's share of the project economics still screens well after the 40/60 split and the construction capital burden, it's a meaningful addition. If management has the bandwidth to deploy the same energy into a wholly owned project, the opportunity cost is real.

Either way, the per-ounce economics in this technical report are some of the most attractive the company has on the table. The open question is whether 40% of them is enough.