Aftermath Silver ($AAG | $AAGFF): Peru Silver Project with Significant Manganese Potential

Nordic Funds Jul 13, 2026

Summary

Michael Williams argues Berenguela's silver, copper and battery-grade manganese give Aftermath an unusual choice: develop the deposit or sell it.

Eric Sprott holds roughly 25% after backing a $20 million December financing at 90 cents, with shares now trading below that level.

Ore reaching the surface supports an open pit with a roughly one-to-one strip ratio, meaning less waste rock and lower upfront capital.

Hydrometallurgy lifts recovery to about 96% silver, 90% copper and 87% manganese, against the 67% achieved by historic surface workings.

The guest points to three near-term catalysts: a January pre-feasibility study, a skarn drill test, and follow-up on high-grade copper intercepts.

The only Kinross reference is the guest's statement that the company acquired Great Bear Resources for $2 billion, several years before this interview.

The guest frames flagship Berenguela in southern Peru as roughly the 11th-largest undeveloped silver asset globally, with 144 million ounces of silver (120 Moz measured and indicated, 20 Moz inferred), about a billion pounds of copper and roughly 3 million tonnes of manganese.
He says the pre-feasibility study lands in Q1, likely January, with a production decision in 18-24 months; he models about 3 Moz of silver in year 1 rising to roughly 5 Moz a year from years 2-6, with production possible around 2030-31.
Manganese is the differentiating metal in his thesis: he says US buyers pay roughly $2,500/t against about $1,000/t in China, and that the US government has signalled interest in helping fund a processing plant in South Carolina or Georgia, after the company was invited to the Pentagon two months earlier on Navy drone demand for manganese.
Drilling to date is close to 190 holes at a 95-97% hit rate, with highlights including 156 m at 1.12% copper with 290 g/t silver and 7.3% manganese, and roughly 48-50 m at 438-450 g/t silver with 2.2% copper; the eastern high-grade copper zone and a skarn target 4 km away are next drill targets, with skarn results hoped for by August 2026.
Aftermath owns 100% of Berenguela, of Chaya Coyle in Chile and of a third Chilean project, with no earn-in payments outstanding; it paid $21m in cash and stock for Berenguela when its market cap was about $25m, against roughly $200-250m at the time of this interview.

Top takeaway Friedland is quoted arguing that meeting the 2040-2050 net-zero goals would require finding as much copper as has been found in the last 10,000 years, which he says will not happen.

Top takeaway Williams argues Aftermath is still valued as a silver company and that the market does not yet price the manganese; he expects that gap to close in about 18 months, likening manganese to tungsten, which investors only insisted on owning once it became acute.
He credits hydrometallurgy with making the deposit economic: local miners known to the deposit for about 100 years recovered only around 67% because manganese hindered processing, while his process targets 96% silver, 90% copper and 87% manganese recoveries.
On margins, he argues mineralization reaching surface and an estimated 1:1 strip ratio keep operating costs low enough to stay economic even if silver falls back to the $25-30 range, versus the roughly $17 level when Aftermath acquired the project.
He says full ownership matters to institutions, which assign more value to unencumbered assets, and that owning 100% of Berenguela plus the two Chilean projects removes the risk of losing them.
He departs from the industry playbook of selling a project after pre-feasibility by arguing silver and copper co-products plus manganese could make Aftermath the largest EV-battery manganese producer globally, while warning that competitors will wait for it to fail if it lacks the team to deliver.

Top takeaway The guest says Sprott is Aftermath's largest shareholder at roughly 25% of the company, and estimates he has around 140 holdings under management, historically weighted to silver and gold.
He notes Sprott subscribed in the December financing at C$0.90 a share with no warrant attached, and that the shares were trading near C$0.80 at the time of this interview about six months later.