(Kitco News) New Pacific Metals expects to finish permitting its Carangas silver-gold project in Bolivia by late 2028. First, the country’s legislature must ratify the project’s newly signed mining contracts, a vote CEO Jalen Yuan hopes to see before the end of this year.
Yuan spoke with Kitco Mining on Sept. 23 at the 2026 Precious Metals Summit in Beaver Creek. New Pacific signed 30-year Administrative Mining Contracts covering about 39 square kilometers at Carangas, in Bolivia’s Oruro department, on Aug. 21. Yuan expected the contracts to go before the Plurinational Legislative Assembly as early as October.
“A simple majority of 51% approval is needed in the National Assembly, and we are hoping to get it approved by the end of this year,” he said.
An environmental impact assessment of 12 to 18 months would follow. “So realistically, we’re looking towards mid-2028 or the last quarter of 2028 as the completion stage for all the permitting and the beginning stage of construction,” Yuan said.
The process is unfolding as President Rodrigo Paz’s government, which took office in November 2025, reworks Bolivia’s investment rules. Yuan said a foreign investment framework law is before the National Assembly and amendments to the mining law are being drafted, though the details are not yet public. The country is starting from a low base. “There have been no meaningful new mine developments… in the past 20 or 25-year period,” he said.
The Carangas project grew considerably in July, when an updated preliminary economic assessment added a deeper gold zone and higher throughput. The study outlined a post-tax net present value of US$2.65 billion at a 5% discount rate, a 35.9% after-tax internal rate of return and initial capital of US$644.5 million. Yuan said the 2024 study had an NPV of about $500 million on roughly $300 million in capital.
“So it’s doubled CapEx, but five times NPV,” he said.
A 30,000-meter drill program, mostly infill, began in September with two rigs. “We want to convert more inferred resources into indicated and measured categories,” Yuan said.
Silver Sand, in Potosí, has long been New Pacific’s flagship, and Yuan said the company is splitting money and staff evenly between the two projects. “A fair answer to that question is, I’m not picking one over the other,” he said.
Permitting progress will likely decide which moves first, and Yuan said Carangas is on a faster track because it has secured community support. He said New Pacific signed a framework agreement with the Carangas community in February. The company completed the required prior consultation on July 6. At Silver Sand, which already has a prefeasibility study, New Pacific is negotiating a similar agreement it hopes to sign by the end of 2026 or early 2027.
“But we’re not too far away,” Yuan said.
Funding is not a pressing concern. “All I can say is demand is higher than what we are willing to offer at the moment,” he said. Silvercorp Metals holds about 28% of New Pacific and Pan American Silver about 11% to 12%, according to Yuan.
Outside interest is building as well. “There are other buyers out in the market that are constantly checking under the hood on us,” he said. New Pacific still intends to do the permitting work itself. “Internally, our preference is to actually build these mines by ourselves,” Yuan said, adding that any serious offer would be a decision for the board and shareholders.
The next markers are the assembly vote on the Carangas contracts and a community agreement at Silver Sand. Carangas drill results are expected in batches through the end of 2026 and into 2027.
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Learn more about New Pacific Metals here.
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