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This Gold Project Still Looks Great at $4,000 Gold | Minera Alamos Copperstone PFS

The Deep Dive Jun 15, 2026

Summary

Minera Alamos' Copperstone restart needs just $58 million in initial capital, with AISC (all-in sustaining cost — the real cost per ounce) at $13.14.

Infrastructure left standing since 2013, plus 4 km of underground development, cuts the build cost sharply.

At a $3,500 base-case gold price, the PFS shows a 108% IRR (annualized return on invested capital) and a 1.2-year payback.

Output is flat at 46,000 ounces a year over six years, well below the 680,000-ounce resource base awaiting reserve conversion.

The analyst sees standalone Copperstone value nearly matching the whole company, with open pit upside and Goldrock still unpriced.

Steve Hyland's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Top point: Hyland argues a base-case IRR above 100% makes this study worth examining precisely now, because he sees a difficult backdrop for precious metals - May inflation at 4.2%, a jobs report showing more than 170,000 jobs added, and the on-again, off-again ceasefire in Iran.
  • He is openly skeptical of how the study was framed, noting the company appears to have made the final investment decision before the PFS was complete, with pre-construction well underway and major process plant components delivered a week before publication; he says the study may have been a requirement of the existing credit facility or simply to keep investors happy, and adds he tried twice for a callback without getting one.
  • He treats the six-year mine life as a floor rather than the final figure, pointing to the 12-year life in the earlier PEA and the gap between 291,000 ounces of mine production and an estimated 680,000-ounce resource, and expects more drilling to extend it.
  • He dismisses the $4,500/oz spot-price case used in the study as not applicable to markets right now, while arguing the project still screens well at $4,000/oz gold.
  • He is unimpressed by the production profile itself - roughly 46,000 ounces a year, more than double current output and a step toward intermediate producer status at about 90,000 oz/yr - but calls the economics strong and says the remaining risk is keeping costs intact through construction; he also relays management's claim of a tied-for-best production CAGR of about 68% between 2026 and 2028.