Investor Insight
Rio Silver’s value proposition leverages a wholly owned 4,300 hectares of mineral concessions in a historic Peruvian mining district, a management team holding a 29 percent stake and over two decades of local experience, extensive exploration data and promising historical drill results.
Overview
Rio Silver (TSXV:RYO) is a precious metals mining and exploration company with a focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of precious metals deposits in South America. The company is currently focused on advancing its 100 percent-owned Niñobamba silver-gold project in Peru. The company has decades of experience navigating the mining regulatory landscape of Peru and considers itself to be well-positioned for the coming mining cycle.
Rio Silver’s flagship Niñobamba property is located in the Department of Ayacucho about 330 kilometers southeast of Lima. The 4,300-hectare property is wholly owned by the company and the project is drill ready. The Niñobamba project partially comprises a 2,200 hectare property which was previously owned by Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) and Southern Peru Mining. The balance was held by AngloGold Ashanti and Bear Creek Mining but has since been strategically acquired and consolidated into Rio Silver’s property.
The Ninobamba project engulfs a collapsed caldera, an ancient volcano, where the Niñobamba North and South zones were mineralized in a hot spring environment within the wall rock of the caldera surrounded by areas that contain high-sulfidation mineralization with near surface silver and gold deposits modeled for Rio Silver using leapfrog 3D software. The neighbouring Jorimina deposit, 6.5 kilometers to the west, where Newmont spent more than US$7 million, concluded an internal, positive, preliminary economic assessment, detailing a predominantly gold-rich, low to mid-sulfidation deposit found in the floor structure of this collapsed caldera.
In 2025, Rio Silver and African Energy Metals (NEX:CUCO.H;FSE:BC2; WKN:A3DEJG) signed an option agreement granting African Energy Metals a 100 percent interest in the Niñobamba gold-silver project in Ayacucho, Peru. Additionally, Rio Silver also entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the high-grade Maria Norte polymetallic silver property from Peruvian Metals (TSXV:PER), located in the historic Huachocolpa Mining District in Huancavelica, Southern Peru.
The company’s management and advisory team is made up of experienced industry veterans, some with as many as 25 years of experience working in Peru. The team has an in-depth understanding of the regulatory processes associated with mining exploration in the country.
To date, Rio Silver and other historical operators have completed US$10 million in exploration expenditure on the Niñobamba property. The company has low overhead expenditure and strong alliances in Peru that are helping it achieve new initiatives for enhanced sustainability.
The company now holds a 3 percent net smelter return (NSR) royalty with guaranteed minimum payments from a recent property sale and these initiatives enable more exploration by helping Rio Silver with sustaining costs.
Company Highlights
- Rio Silver owns six mineral concessions covering 4,300 hectares of wholly-owned land in a historic Peruvian mining district.
- The property was historically surrounded by big-name miners (Newmont, Southern Peru Copper) and is now wholly owned by Rio Silver.
- Experienced management team with more than two decades of mining experience in Peru.
- Extensive trenching completed at the Niñobamba zone.
- The management team holds a 29 percent stake in the company.
- US$10 million in exploration expenditure completed to date by Rio and historical operators.
- All the historical data has been collected from previous owners.
- Historical drilling on the Niñobamba property intersected 130 meters of 2.55 oz/t silver and 72.3 meters of 1.19 g/t gold.
- New gold zone identified includes 56 meters at 98.9 g/t silver and 21.77 meters at 1.32 g/t gold, 102.46 g/t silver.
- Rio Silver and African Energy Metals signed an option agreement granting African Energy Metals a 100 percent interest in the Niñobamba gold-silver project in Ayacucho, Peru.
- Rio Silver has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the high-grade Maria Norte polymetallic silver property from Peruvian Metals. The property is located in the historic Huachocolpa Mining District in Huancavelica, Southern Peru.
Key Project
Niñobamba Silver Project, Peru
Located 330 kilometers southeast of Lima in the Department of Ayacucho, the Niñobamba property is 100 percent wholly owned by Rio Silver. The property includes six mineral concessions covering 4,300 hectares. The district has historically been mined by major international gold miners including Newmont Goldcorp and Southern Peru Mining.
The property was initially explored by AngloGold (JSE:ANG) in 2001. Anglo drilled five widely-spaced core holes totaling 861 meters focusing in an area of intense hydrothermal surface alteration. AngloGold’s drilling highlights included assay results of 87.0 grams per tonne (g/t) silver over a drilled interval of 130 meters starting from a depth of 9 meters reported from drill hole DDH-2 and 54.0 g/t silver over a drilled interval of 96 meters starting from 23 meters reported from the AN-04 drill hole.
Adjacent zones acquired from major miners
In 2016, Rio Silver consolidated its property by acquiring the surrounding 2,200 hectares of adjoining land from Newmont Mining and Southern Peru Copper. These included the 2,000 hectare Jorimina zone, which is located about 6.5 kilometers west of the Niñobamba and is believed to be part of the same high-sulfidation silver-gold system identified in the main Niñobamba zones. Along with the property came an extensive database of information including results and reports from an exploration program by the mining majors which encompassed 553 hectares. Newmont’s exploration included mapping, 2,147 rock samples and induced polarization geophysics. This historic exploration indicated a gold anomalous area of more than 700 meters by 1,000 meters as well as four strong chargeability anomalies coinciding with gold-silver in rock anomalies.
Newmont’s historic data includes samples of 17.4 meters of 3.06 g/t gold and 200 meters of 0.26 g/t gold. Historic exploration in the Jorimina zone conducted by Newmont in 2009 and 2010 shows highlights of 72.3 meters of 1.19 g/t gold starting at 53-meter depth.
In 2024, Rio Silver completed a surface access agreement with the local community for one year at the Jorimina project after an environmental impact study and community workshops were also completed to represent the final steps of the drill permitting application process.
Exploration and trenching results
To date, extensive trenching has been completed by Rio Silver on the Niñobamba property. In 2012, the company began conducting surface trenching in areas proximate to historical drilling locations. Exploration has focused primarily on the north and south zones of silver mineralization approximately 400 meters apart with variable thicknesses. Surface sampling near trenches in the north zone returned highlights of 1.32 g/t gold and 102.46 g/t silver. Sampling near trenches in the south zone returned highlights of 42.62 meters of 130.98 g/t silver. Additional highlights can be found on Rio Silver’s
website.
Management Team
Chris Verrico - President, CEO, and Director
Chris Verrico has extensive experience with rural-remote infrastructure construction and contract mining throughout BC, the Yukon, Alaska and Nunavut. He has been a director for a dozen startup junior mining companies, most of which have become public companies. Verrico has managed numerous exploration projects in North America, Mexico and throughout western South America. He is currently the director of Juggernaught Exploration.
Steve Brunelle - Chairman
Steve Brunelle is the former officer and director of Corner Bay Silver, which was acquired by Pan American Silver. He has 35 years of experience in mineral exploration throughout the Americas and is currently an Officer and Director for several TSXV companies.
Jeffrey J Reeder - Advisor
Jeffrey J Reeder is a professional geologist with more than two decades of experience working in Peru. Reeder possesses an in-depth understanding of the rules, practices, and processes involved in conducting mining and exploration in the country and is currently the president of Peruvian Metals which owns a custom toll milling facility in northern Peru.
Jim McCrea – Adviser
Jim McCrea has more than 30 years’ experience in exploration, mining geology and mineral resource estimation. He worked for junior mining/exploration companies and engineering companies SRK and Snowden. His geological expertise ranges from technical review and due diligence to resource estimation and feasibility studies. McCrea has experience in a range of commodities, but primarily gold, silver and copper, with particular focus on North and South America. He has performed ore body modeling and resource estimation for the successfully targeted takeover company Cumberland Resources by Agnico-Eagle Mines. More recently, McCrea completed many mineral resource estimations underpinning acquisitions such as Minera San Cristóbal S.A. of Bolivia, Arena Minerals and Montan Mining, to mention a few.
Richard Mazur - Director
Richard Mazur is the co-founder and past managing director of RLG International, operating in over 30 countries worldwide with more than 300 employees.
Jeffrey J. Reeder - Advisor
Jeffrey J. Reeder, P. Geo., holds a B.Sc. (Honours) in Geology from the University of Alberta and has been a registered professional geologist with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia since 1992. With 25 years of experience working in Peru and fluency in Spanish, Mr. Reeder has played a key role in identifying and acquiring significant mineral projects, including the Aguila Copper-Moly deposit—now being developed by Mexican mining giant Industrias Peñoles—and the Pinaya Copper-Gold project, currently under exploration by Kaizen Discovery.
Reeder is the president and CEO of Peruvian Metals, which operates a successful and expanding toll milling plant in northern Peru. Under his leadership, the company is also developing nearby mines to enhance the supply of ore to its growing mineral processing facility.
Eric H. Hinton - Advisor
Eric Hinton holds degrees from Haileybury School of Mines, Queen’s University, and Laurentian University and is a registered professional engineer in Ontario and Manitoba. A Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum, he is also designated as a Qualified Person (QP) in underground mining by the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America and is recognized as a QP under National Instrument 43-101.
Christopher Hopton - CFO and Advisor
Christopher Hopton is a seasoned financial management professional with 25 years of experience. He has led financial operations for resource and biotech companies across Canada and South America. Since 2019, Hopton has served as chief financial officer (CFO) of the company, bringing expertise in financial planning, accounting policy, and business process optimization. In addition to his current role as CFO at Rio Silver, Hopton previously served as CFO of Central Resources, a junior mineral exploration company. He also played a key role in the successful restructuring of 360 Networks, a network communications firm, which ultimately led to its strategic acquisition by Bell Canada.
Figure 1: Devils Mountain Gold Project Location Map
Figure 2: Devils Mountain Project Geology and known historical mining prospects
Figure 1. Gidji JV Project (yellow outline) and Boorara Shear Zone(white) in relation to Kalgoorlie.
Figure 2. New aircore drilling results (squares) in relation to previous drilling (circles).
Table 1. Significant drill results from the first 34 aircore holes at Gidji JV.Note: results reported above 0.25g/t Au lower cutoff
Figure 1. Mt Stirling Leonora North
