Blackrock Silver projects 11-year Tonopah West mine life in Nye County

Blackrock Silver’s updated Tonopah West plan points to a project that could keep heavy equipment, contractors and county regulators busy west-northwest of Tonopah for more than a decade, but the economic payoff for Nye County still depends on whether the mine can be financed and built. The company’s new preliminary economic assessment outlines an 11.2-year mine life, an 1,800-tonne-per-day operation and an after-tax net present value of US$437 million at a 5% discount rate, with an initial capital bill of US$190 million.

Blackrock filed the independent technical report on May 13. The report, dated May 12 and effective March 25, assumes conservative base-case metal prices of US$31 per ounce for silver and US$2,700 per ounce for gold. Under those assumptions, the company says Tonopah West would average 7.1 million silver-equivalent ounces a year, produce 89.6 million silver-equivalent ounces in total, and generate 79.6 million payable silver-equivalent ounces over the mine life. The study also shows an after-tax internal rate of return of 28%, a base-case payback period of 3.5 years and all-in sustaining costs of US$17.44 per silver-equivalent ounce.

For Tonopah and Nye County, the practical question is what those numbers would mean on the ground. An 1,800-tonne-per-day mine would bring a construction phase that could ripple through local trucking, equipment rentals, lodging, fuel sales and service work, followed by a smaller but steady operating footprint if the project advances to production. Blackrock has not broken out a local jobs tally in the PEA, but the scale of the build suggests more than paper economics would be at stake for the town and the county budget.

The updated study is larger and longer-lived than Blackrock’s September 4, 2024 PEA, which projected a 7.8-year mine life, an after-tax NPV5% of US$326 million, an after-tax IRR of 39.2%, initial capital of US$178 million and all-in sustaining costs of US$11.96 per silver-equivalent ounce. The newer plan stretches the mine life and raises the project value, while also showing the higher costs that come with a bigger, longer operation.

Tonopah West sits about 1 kilometer west-northwest of Tonopah on private land in Nye and Esmeralda counties, inside the historic Tonopah mining district that was discovered in 1900 after Jim Butler’s strike. Blackrock says the project is on patented claims and that permitting is streamlined because only state and county regulators are involved. The company’s updated resource estimate includes 2.75 million tonnes indicated grading 216.8 grams per tonne silver and 2.25 grams per tonne gold, plus 5.5 million tonnes inferred grading 188.5 grams per tonne silver and 2.62 grams per tonne gold.

Blackrock has drilled more than 150,000 meters at Tonopah West since 2020 and has cast the project as part of a domestic silver supply story in Nevada, which it says ranked No. 1 globally for mining jurisdiction in the Fraser Institute’s 2025 survey. For Tonopah, the project now moves from technical promise to a narrower test: whether financing, permitting and engineering can turn a paper mine into actual construction, payroll and county revenue.