This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner Tinka Resources. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
Tinka Resources (TSX-V:TK) is riding high on silver’s current strong market dynamics, finding opportunities to bring its projects in central Peru into development.
Though the projects themselves are polymetallic — with the wholly owned Ayawilca containing resources of silver, zinc, and tin — it is the current silver market that is driving today’s opportunities for Tinka.
President and CEO Graham Carman notes that while the company is currently focused predominantly on the wholly owned Ayawilca Project, they also have the nearby Silvia Copper-Gold Project in the pipeline.
Ayawilca: Peru’s polymetallic powerhouse with zinc, silver, and tin upside
Comprising 8,200 hectares of mining concessions, Ayawilca is described as one of the most significant emerging polymetallic deposits in the Americas. But it also has a silver satellite cap at Colquipucro with ‘huge’ upside.
The Ayawilca project itself has a mineral resource estimate (MRE) in three key zones: (1) a Zinc Zone (which has polymetallic mineralisation with zinc, silver, and lead), (2) a Tin Zone (which holds separate cassiterite-bearing tin mineralisation), and (3) Colquipucro, which represents the shallow silver-rich deposit.
Carman explains that these resources are based on the significant amount of exploration work that’s been done on the site, including 100,000m of drilling across over 200 diamond drill holes.
The Zinc Zone is the largest resource within the asset, at 28 million tonnes @ 7% zinc in indicated mineral resources, with 3.6 billion pounds of contained zinc and 15 million ounces of contained silver.
The Tin Zone is primarily in the inferred category but has 13 million tonnes @ 0.76% tin, containing 200 million pounds of tin.
Carman notes that the company expects these two deposits to be amenable to underground mining in the future.
“A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) published in Q1 2024 detailed a conceptual 2.3-million-tonne-per-annum underground mine designed to produce three mineral concentrates — zinc, silver-lead, and tin — resulting in robust and highly compelling economics,” Carman says.
The PEA also outlined a 20-year mine life on the project, with dominant zinc revenue and a small tin resource as an additional contributor. However, it did not include the Colquipucro silver satellite deposit.
Since the 2024 PEA, Tinka has broadened its focus to include Colquipucro as a potential starter pit.
Colquipucro: Shallow silver oxide deposit poised as starter pit
Colquipucro is a nearby silver oxide deposit with disseminated silver mineralisation occurring very close to the surface — from 0 to 100m — hosting 14.3 million ounces of silver @ 60g/t silver in indicated resources, with an additional 13.2 million ounces of silver @ 50g/t silver in inferred.
The resource from Colquipucro comes from 8,700m of drilling across 49 drill holes, with resources estimated to be contained within north-dipping, high-grade lenses surrounded by a low-grade halo.
Carman notes that these figures from Colquipucro come from historical drilling completed before 2015, during a period of depressed silver prices.
“The 2016 MRE used a silver price of US$24 per ounce,” Carman says.
“With silver now trading around three times this price — and expected to stay strong for a period of time — the value of the deposit is significantly higher than when it was last evaluated.
“Tinka is now conducting internal studies to reassess the economic potential of Colquipucro, including its viability as a potential starter pit for the project.”
According to Trading Economics, Silver is currently up around 4% this month at the time of publishing and is up around 123% this year.
The opportunity now for Tinka to bring Colquipucro on as a starter pit has changed the upside for the company, and therefore, it has begun internal studies to evaluate the project based on these economics.
“Given the deposit’s shallow depth, Colquipucro presents an opportunity for early development under a silver pricing regime, different from what was previously assessed,” Carman says.
“There are a number of ways that we can tackle this project, depending on if we want to start small and very high grade or go large. The Scoping Study (PEA) that we did in 2024 was designed for a mid-sized underground operation, but the opportunities have since changed.
“This represents a paradigm shift … for us, because the project is suddenly no longer just focused on zinc. It is now a zinc-silver project, or maybe we’ll just focus on silver that initially could be open-pitable.”
Amid these technical studies evaluating the potential for Colquipucro, Tinka is also re-evaluating Ayawilca as a smaller, higher-margin zinc-silver polymetallic mineral than what was initially presented in the PEA.
“A drill program is planned for the second half of 2026 to target resource definition and conversion of high-grade silver areas,” Carman says.
“A mineral resource upgrade can be expected early in 2027, followed by a PFS later in the year.
“Meanwhile, the tin at Ayawilca represents huge ‘blue sky’ potential because the tin zone is open and untested down-structure.”
Market strength reshapes project trajectory and upside potential
As Carman has noted, the strength in the silver market has shifted the trajectory of the project — and the company overall.
Most importantly, with a potential Colquipucro starter pit, similarly to other companies in the precious metals space, projects that might not have been economic at previous prices are now becoming economic.
Carman believes that there’s still room for upward movement in the long-term prices for both gold and silver.
“Some people are saying that the gold price can go up another 10%–30%. Typically, gold and silver move together, but there can be a bit more volatility with silver, though also more upside.
“With silver being used in an industrial capacity — including in solar panels, which is only going to increase with time — this means that the demand for silver is here to stay.
“Everybody’s loving silver right now.”
Drilling, resource upgrades, and PFS on the horizon
Tinka has no plans to slow down anytime soon.
Carman points to the company’s updated board of directors, having brought in new people in 2025, “to help reinvigorate the board and give focus on what it is we’re trying to do”.
The company also has C$13 million ($13.3 million) in the bank (end December 2025) to help move these plans along.
Surface sampling of silver veins is ongoing at Ayawilca, with results to be released in Q2 2026.
A drill program of around 5,000m is expected in the latter half of the year at Ayawilca, with a focus on targeting extensions of silver veins and upgrading silver-rich resource areas.
“This next round of drilling is hugely important,” Carman says.
“All of the work is going to end up in a significant disclosure to the market over the next 12 months or so — that will present the favoured development case for this exciting silver and zinc project, including steps towards a production scenario.”
Carman also notes that at the nearby Silvia Copper-Gold Project, ground geophysics are expected in Q2 2026, following up on encouraging drill holes at the Silvia copper-gold skarn from earlier in the year.
Carman believes that there is significant unrealised potential and value in its projects, and the company is now focused on extracting that value, primarily by de-risking its projects.
Tinka is focused on bringing Ayawilca toward development and, eventually, production.
“We aim to de-risk both Ayawilca and Colquipucro through permitting, drilling, and engineering studies, with a goal of being a highly successful polymetallic mining operation within the next three to five years.”
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: Tinka Resources and Mining.com.au
