Shares in Mitre Mining (ASX: MMC) closed sharply higher on Thursday after investors heard from executive director Ray Shorrocks at the Resources Rising Stars Summer Series in Brisbane.

Mitre shares closed 9% higher at $0.24 after reaching an intraday peak of $0.25.

Mr Shorrocks presented the micro-cap’s story for the first time since the company completed the transformational acquisition of the Cerro Bayo silver-gold project in Chile.

“What we’ve done here is something very, very special,” he told delegates.

Cerro Bayo’s production history

Cerro Bayo was in production for 15 years until 2022, producing more than 45 million ounces of silver and 650,000oz of gold.

The low-cost acquisition settled on Tuesday this week with Mitre paying $4 million in cash and issuing $500,000 worth of shares.

That sum bought Mitre an inferred resource of 24.7Moz of silver equivalent at a grade of 206 grams per tonne and surface infrastructure with a replacement value of approximately $150m including a 500,000 tonne per annum mill, tailings storage facility and 10 megawatts of power capacity.

Drilling will begin this month with an initial 6,000m planned.

“We want to see if this can get to 100Moz,” Mr Shorrocks said.

“It’s going to take a lot of work, but we think it’s achievable.”

In the meantime, a resource update is due in the June 2024 quarter.

“We’re hoping it’ll come out before then,” Mr Shorrocks said.

Silver market

Mr Shorrocks said silver used to be considered the “poor cousin” of gold.

“It’s really broken away from gold, I believe,” he said.

“That’s because it’s on the critical minerals list and it’s essential for everyday life.”

A typical 5.5-kilowatt home solar power system contains about 12oz of silver.

Global silver demand for the solar industry is expected to be just under 200Moz this year.

Demand from the US alone is expected to reach more than 500Moz by 2030 and 750Moz by 2050.

Saxo head of commodity strategy Ole Hansen noted the silver price’s rollercoaster ride last week.

Silver dropped below US$22/oz but recovered on hopes of Chinese stimulus measures. Spot silver is currently sitting at US$22.86/oz.

“A weekly close near or above US$23 will create an interesting technical setup with the hammer candlestick pattern potentially signalling a reversal, similar to those seen on three previous occasions,” Mr Hansen said.