Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd.

Notable vs. Peers

• Jurisdiction risk score of 3/10 is meaningfully riskier than the peer average of 7/10.
• Financials score of 6.1/10 is weaker than the peer average of 7.6/10.
• All-in sustaining cost of $21.87/AgEq oz is 33% lower than the peer producer average of $32.71/AgEq oz.

Lifecycle Milestones

1. Permit granted

   Not yet reached · Carried forward verbatim from this miner's own constructionMilestone:PERMIT_GRANTED MetricStatus note (Task #692, status RESEARCHED_UNKNOWN): "checked-gap RE-CONFIRMED (was already RESEARCHED_UNKNOWN from Task #430 batch 7; re-checked and re-dated this pass, no new information). Bolivar/Porco operating permits and mining rights predate Santacruz's 2022-03-21 acquisition and were granted to earlier owners; operations run under an NPI agreement with the Bolivian state entity COMIBOL. No dated grant event attributable to Santacruz exists to find." Task #807: written as a real disputed=true/disputedKind=CONFIRMED_NON_OCCURRENCE row now that Task #792/#793 built the generic exemption mechanism (hasConfirmedPermanentDivergence() in src/lib/lifecycle-gates.ts) -- this finding previously existed only as MetricStatus prose. Same root cause as this miner's own CONSTRUCTION_DECISION row (disputed since Task #692, disputedKind set by Task #793): mines acquired already-built/already-permitted from Glencore, closing 2022-03-21. · Source
2. Construction decision (FID)

   Not yet reached · Closing of Santacruz's acquisition of Glencore's producing Bolivian silver/zinc mines (Bolivar and Porco), first announced Oct 13, 2021 and closed Mar 21, 2022 -- Santacruz's own real decision-equivalent event to become the operator of these already-built, already-producing mines (see script header: the mines were built by prior owners, not Santacruz, so the underlying permit/construction-start/first-production milestones are checked-gaps rather than backfilled to Santacruz's own timeline). -- TASK #692 CORRECTION (2026-08-25): row marked disputed=true -- This row's own note already described the event as Santacruz's "decision-EQUIVALENT" for mines "built by prior owners, not Santacruz". Promoting construction-decision-implies-permit-granted to `enforced` (Task #691) made that proxy visible: the gate presupposes a board FID to build, which never happened here. Marked disputed=true so hasMilestone() no longer treats it as a construction decision; the row, its date (2022-03-21) and its citation are all preserved, per the Task #685 (KAU) remedy. This is the SAME underlying fact the standing SCZ rulings already established, not a new one. · Source
3. Construction start

   Not yet reached · Carried forward verbatim from this miner's own constructionMilestone:CONSTRUCTION_START MetricStatus note (Task #700, status VERIFIED): "LEGITIMATE DIVERGENCE resting on an EXPLICIT PRIOR RECORDED DECISION, deliberately not overridden. Santacruz did not build its producing mines: Bolivar, Porco and the Caballo Blanco Group (Bolivia) were built by prior operators and acquired from Glencore, the transaction closing 2022-03-21; Zimapan (Mexico) was likewise acquired. The Task #430 batch 7 script header states the ruling in terms, and this miner's own CONSTRUCTION_DECISION note repeats it verbatim: 'the mines were built by prior owners, not Santacruz, so the underlying permit/construction-start/first-production milestones are checked-gaps rather than backfilled to Santacruz's own timeline.' Task #610 independently reached this same conclusion and explicitly declined to write SCZ's FIRST_PRODUCTION row for it, recording that a recorded decision must not be 'overridden to lower an audit count'. This pass upholds that a third time rather than reversing two prior rulings. stage=PRODUCTION is correct and is not in doubt." Task #807: written as a real disputed=true/disputedKind=CONFIRMED_NON_OCCURRENCE row now that Task #792/#793 built the generic exemption mechanism (hasConfirmedPermanentDivergence() in src/lib/lifecycle-gates.ts) -- this finding previously existed only as MetricStatus prose. · Source
4. First pour / production

   Not yet reached · Carried forward verbatim from this miner's own constructionMilestone:FIRST_PRODUCTION MetricStatus note (Task #430 batch 7, status RESEARCHED_UNKNOWN): "Bolivar/Porco were explicitly already 'producing' mines at the time Santacruz agreed to acquire them (Oct 13, 2021 announcement headline), i.e. first production under the original operator predates Santacruz's Mar 21, 2022 acquisition close (recorded above as the real CONSTRUCTION_DECISION-equivalent for Santacruz's own actions). Genuine research did not turn up a dated primary source for the mines' original historic first-production date under the prior operator. Recorded as a checked gap rather than substituting Santacruz's acquisition date for a milestone that is not really Santacruz's own action." Task #807: written as a real disputed=true/disputedKind=CONFIRMED_NON_OCCURRENCE row now that Task #792/#793 built the generic exemption mechanism (hasConfirmedPermanentDivergence() in src/lib/lifecycle-gates.ts) -- this finding previously existed only as MetricStatus prose. sourceUrl reuses the same 2022-03-21 acquisition-close press release cited on this miner's CONSTRUCTION_DECISION/CONSTRUCTION_START rows -- the Oct 13, 2021 agreement announcement referenced in the note above was not independently captured as a URL in prior research. · Source
5. Commercial production

   Reached — date not disclosed · Genuinely reached, but no single company-wide commercial-production date exists across a genuine multi-mine, two-country portfolio: Bolivar and Porco (Bolivia, operated under an NPI agreement with the state entity COMIBOL, Santacruz receiving 45% of profits), the Caballo Blanco Group (Tres Amigos, Reserva, Colquechaquita, Bolivia, 100%-owned), and the Zimapan mine (Mexico, 100%-owned) -- each acquired/developed at a different time with a different ownership history. Q1 2026 results reported 1,341,499 oz silver and 21,640 tonnes zinc across the combined operations. This row was missing entirely prior to 2026-08-21 -- a genuine data gap, not a stage error; Miner.stage was already correctly PRODUCTION. · Source

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.