Heliostar - Inside the Ana Paula Feasibility Study: Mill Scalability, Cost Optimization, Permitting
Summary
Heliostar's Ana Paula feasibility study (the detailed plan for building a mine) is 34% complete and tracking to Q2 2027, targeting 100,000 gold ounces yearly.
CEO Charles Funk says upsizing the mill to 2,000 tonnes per day (expandable to 2,500) keeps high-grade feed early and adds low-grade optionality later.
Underground crushing, conveyors replacing ore trucks, and an NSR cut-off (value-based, not fixed gold price) target lower costs and better economics.
Converting the 2017 open-pit permit to underground cuts surface disturbance 65%, with approval expected around the feasibility study's completion and a mid-2027 construction decision.
Funk says operating cash flow plus project financing should fund the build, while La Colorada expands and a project pipeline advances.
Cory Fleck's takeaways
- Top takeaway As host, he frames the update around the step up from the PEA to the feasibility study, pressing on mill throughput, underground access trade-offs, permitting timelines, and what the company needs the study for ahead of a construction decision.
- He notes Heliostar has just started the open-pit expansion at La Colorada and asks what else investors should watch from the company in the near term.
Charles Funk's takeaways
- Top takeaway He argues the feasibility study is the recipe for building and operating Ana Paula rather than a document to attract a buyer or lift the share price, and says construction will start as soon as it is delivered, with the back end of the Lassonde curve being the re-rating he expects to follow.
- He stresses the timeline has not slipped: feasibility study in Q2 2027, construction decision mid-2027, first gold pour at the end of 2028, and commercial production in early 2029.
- He defends keeping very high-grade ore in the first five or so years of the mine plan to hold all-in sustaining costs attractive, while sizing the mill so lower-grade material can be fed later in the mine life in a high gold price environment.
- He argues Heliostar can fund the Ana Paula build from operating cash flow plus project financing, and says showing the project finance package in the coming months will be a key confidence step for shareholders.
- He positions the pipeline, with Serra de Gaia moving to feasibility and Gold Strike to pre-feasibility behind Ana Paula, as what grows production and lowers AISC versus peers buying older mines.