Boab Metals Limited
Boab Metals holds 100% of the Sorby Hills Silver-Lead Project, Australia's largest undeveloped near-surface lead-silver deposit, located 50 km northeast of Kununurra in the East Kimberley with granted mining leases and EPA approval, 150 km from the Wyndham Port. Following a Final Investment Decision, the project is now under active construction, targeting first concentrate production in H2 2027; Stage 1 production over 8.5 years is expected to yield approximately 2.2 million ounces of silver and 68,000 tonnes of lead per year. The company held A$64.7 million cash and nil debt as of 30 June 2026.
Notable vs. Peers
- Financials score of 10/10 is stronger than the peer average of 7.5/10.
- Jurisdiction risk score of 9/10 is meaningfully safer than the peer average of 6.9/10.
Lifecycle Milestones
Construction Milestones
3 of 5 reached- Reached — date not disclosed · Granted mining leases and EPA approval for Sorby Hills
- Reached — date not disclosed · Final Investment Decision taken; date not disclosed in our sources
- Reached — date not disclosed · Project under active construction, targeting first concentrate H2 2027
- Not yet reached
- Not yet reached
Milestones are recorded only from a company's own dated disclosure. A milestone with no date shown is one we can confirm was reached but for which no date was disclosed — we don't estimate one. "Not yet reached" means exactly that, not that a date is missing. An "Expected" line likewise only ever reflects the company's own guidance (e.g. a study or permit decision targeted for a stated quarter) — most not-yet-reached milestones have none, and that absence means no such guidance has been disclosed, not that one is overdue.
A relative ranking of how closely this company matches the profile of juniors that have actually been acquired — not a probability, and not a reason to buy. Acquisitions are rare: only a few dozen significant deals happen a year across a universe of thousands of juniors, so even a high score here describes a long shot. The strongest signal the underlying research identifies — whether a major already holds a JV, earn-in, or 5–19.9% strategic stake — isn't tracked yet and is absent from this score.
Your Rankings
Management Team
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Boab Metals Limited, appointed on 19 October 2013. Brings over 15 years of experience as a senior executive in the mining sector, having led a range of publicly listed resource companies, with a strong background in strategic management, business planning, finance and capital raising across multiple commodities. Previously served as Managing Director of Groote Resources Ltd, where he oversaw its growth from a market capitalisation of under $10 million to a peak of over $200 million, then co-founded West Rock Resources Ltd and held the role of Managing Director until its acquisition by Boab Metals in 2013. Since joining Boab he has led the exploration and evaluation of projects across Australia and South America, with a key milestone being the transformational acquisition of the Sorby Hills Project in Western Australia in 2018 and its subsequent advancement through a Pre-Feasibility Study, a Definitive Feasibility Study and binding off-take agreements. A member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.
Company Secretary of Boab Metals Limited. A corporate executive with over 25 years' experience in corporate governance, finance and accounting across various industry sectors within Australia and globally, acting as Company Secretary, Chief Financial Officer and Director of several private and listed ASX, JSE and AIM companies throughout his career. Has held senior financial accounting and management roles in large multinational mining and oil and gas companies. FGIA, CPA, BBus.
Project Director of Boab Metals Limited. A seasoned mining executive with over 28 years' experience in the development and operation of large-scale mining projects across Australia and internationally. Has held senior executive and project leadership roles with leading resources companies including BHP, Peabody, Mineral Resources, Downer Mining and Thiess, as well as board positions with ASX-listed companies.
Exploration Manager of Boab Metals Limited. A geologist with extensive experience in the evaluation, exploration and development of mineral resources projects, with a strong technical background focused on geological aspects of mineral systems. Graduated in 1991 from the University of Bonn, Germany with a Masters Degree in Geology and in 1995 received a PhD from the University of Western Australia in Economic Geology. Has since been an industry geologist with small and medium size exploration and mining companies, spending most of his career with a Perth-based geological consulting firm working on projects around the globe, and gained specialist technical knowledge in sediment-hosted base and precious metal deposits and structural geology.
Insiders, Investors & Smart Money
Notable shareholders and insiders whose involvement is worth knowing about, plus what we're seeing from institutional/large-investor activity.
Franklin Gold and Precious Metals Fund, a real specialist fund, holds a stake just under 5%. Global commodities trader Trafigura has a long-term offtake and prepayment financing arrangement with Boab, but this is a commercial financing relationship rather than an equity stake. CEO Simon Noon bought stock on the open market in mid-2025.
No notable insiders tracked for this miner yet.
Reports, Presentations & Documents
Sorby Hills Lead-Silver-Zinc Project (Kimberley, Western Australia; 75:25 JV with Henan Yuguang Gold & Lead Co. Ltd), Boab Metals' sole asset, currently under construction (first concentrate targeted H2 2027). Two studies used for different fields here, both describing the same underlying open-pit mine plan/reserve base -- flagged rather than conflated: (1) Front-End Engineering & Design (FEED) Study, announced 7 Jun 2024 -- BASE CASE: PRE-TAX NPV8=AUD411 million (written here, converted to US$290.1M at 0.7058 USD/AUD, 10 Aug 2026 reference spot, same rate/rationale as ORN/CYM this batch), PRE-TAX IRR=37% (written here); a spot-price sensitivity case (28 May 2024 Pb/Ag spot) shows AUD596M/47% IRR but is NOT the base case and not used. Initial capex AUD264M, average annual EBITDA AUD126M base case. NO AFTER-TAX (post-tax) NPV/IRR was found for the FEED study, nor for the underlying DFS, in any source checked this pass -- genuinely not disclosed as far as could be determined, not an oversight; PRE-TAX figures written here per the same precedent as Task #317 wave 7's POL (commit 6d7eaf3), explicitly flagged as pre-tax, NOT the after-tax convention used elsewhere in this DB. (2) Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS), released 19 Jan 2023 -- PRE-TAX NPV8=AUD370M, IRR=35% (superseded by the FEED's improved AUD411M/37%, not written), 8.5-YEAR mine life (18.3 Mt ore processed; Ore Reserves of 15.2 Mt @ 3.5% Pb, 39 g/t Ag, containing 531 kt Pb and 19.1 Moz Ag). The FEED study is an engineering refinement of the same DFS-vintage mine plan and reserve base -- it does not restate a different mine life -- so mineLifeYears=8.5 is taken from the DFS and paired here with the FEED's more current NPV/IRR; flagged as a cross-document pairing (same underlying project/reserves, different study dates), not a silent conflation of two different mine plans. ouncesFound=29.635 Moz Ag is the Measured+Indicated Mineral Resource (23.6 Mt @ 39 g/t Ag, effective 17 Dec 2021, per boabmetals.com's own resource table: Measured 12.6 Mt/43 g/t/17,521 koz Ag + Indicated 11.0 Mt/34 g/t/12,114 koz Ag = M+I 23.6 Mt/39 g/t/29,635 koz Ag; Inferred 23.6 Mt/31 g/t/23,406 koz Ag correctly excluded; Total resource 53,042 koz/53.0 Moz Ag across all categories) -- silver IS reported in troy ounces in this project's disclosures (unlike ORN/CYM's copper), so the ouncesFound convention here follows the wave 7 silver-batch precedent, not the copper/uranium null-and-checked-gap convention used elsewhere this wave.