(Kitco News) Sinda wants to turn a silver discovery hidden under clay in central Mexico into a mine producing more than 20 million ounces a year. It is targeting construction in 2030 and first production in 2031, backed by about US$331 million raised around its June listing.
“We think this is a multi-mine district that’s just starting. We’re just scratching the surface,” Executive Chairman Daniel Muñiz Quintanilla told Kitco Mining on Sept. 30 at the 2026 Mining Forum Americas in Colorado Springs.
Guanajuato has been mined for centuries, but Sinda’s veins were missed. “It wasn’t discovered before because it was hidden below 300 meters of clay,” Muñiz said. Larry Buchanan, chief geologist at Thomas Kaplan’s Electrum Group, had long theorized that precious metals could lie beneath that kind of cover, and when his team tested a target in southern Guanajuato, “they drilled and they hit.” Electrum spent years drilling the property privately before taking Sinda public.
Across the Caracol and Agaves deposits, Sinda reports 369 million silver-equivalent ounces of inferred resources and 16 million indicated, at an average resource grade of 386 grams per tonne. It has also outlined conceptual exploration targets of 452 million to 484 million silver-equivalent ounces. The exploration targets are not resources, but the company says the two together offer a line of sight to more than 800 million ounces, with only 38% of the known veins drilled.
On Sept. 21, Sinda reported its highest-grade intercept to date at Caracol, 3.05 meters at 12,494 g/t silver equivalent, including 0.65 meters at 24,548 g/t, from infill drilling inside the inferred resource. Eighteen rigs are turning on the property.
Sinda listed on the New York Stock Exchange in late June. With the over-allotment and a concurrent placement that closed July 27, it raised about US$331 million in gross proceeds. Fresnillo paid about US$95.3 million of that for roughly 5% of the company, and Franco-Nevada also invested. “We did the IPO in a very tough market,” Muñiz said. The company says it is fully funded for its exploration and development plans for the next two to three years.
Next comes an updated resource estimate at the end of 2026, then a second update and a preliminary economic assessment in 2027 based on underground drilling. “So with the PEA, we’re going to keep on drilling, get the PFS and then the FS in order to start constructing in 2030 and producing in 2031,” Muñiz said. “This is an aggressive timeline, but very doable, we think,” he added.
Muñiz said metallurgical work at Caracol points to recoveries of about 98%. Sinda’s internal model envisions a 6,000-tonne-per-day operation starting at Caracol, with Agaves to follow. “We are aiming to produce north of 20 million ounces of silver a year,” he said. That excludes the Don Diego corridor, where drilling is testing whether Caracol and Agaves connect.
Fresnillo holds concessions next door, and the companies share a technical committee, though Muñiz said they are developing separate projects. “Our deposit and theirs will not connect. What will connect might be our own Caracol and Agaves ore bodies,” he said. On whether the two could share a mill, he said it was “too early to tell today.”
Muñiz pointed to permitting as proof that Sinda can move fast. The company got drilling permits in seven months and was “permitted in nine months for building the decline and the portal.” The nine-kilometer exploration decline at Caracol is designed to get rigs underground quickly. “The way we’ve engineered the decline is to start drilling three months after we start building it,” he said. Portal site preparation is targeted for completion by the end of 2026.
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