Idaho’s Bunker Hill Mine produced over 165 million ounces of silver before environmental issues halted mining in 1981.

Fast forward to 2021: The EPA-managed clean-up is complete and Bunker Hill Mining (BNKR.CN; BHLL.OTC) has a profitable and environmentally friendly plan to bring the mine back to life.

Dear Fellow Investor,

It’s an opportunity the market has missed so far.

Bunker Hill Mining (BNKR.CN; BHLL.OTC) is advancing rapidly toward a restart decision on Bunker Hill, one of the most prolific silver mines in the history of Idaho (or anywhere else for that matter).

Even though this mine was a huge producer of silver, the market’s oversight isn’t that surprising.

After all, production at Bunker Hill stopped in 1981 due to environmental issues. The mine then spent 35 years as an EPA-designated superfund site.

With that process declared complete in 2016, Bunker Hill Mining took control of the project, but it didn’t have the right people in place to move it forward.

But then, in 2020, everything changed for the better. Bunker Hill revamped its management team and brought onboard former executives from a major gold miner to get the restart on track.

In the past 18 months, this group has digitized 95 years of production and drilling data, published an NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate, conducted multiple drilling campaigns and produced a very positive preliminary economic assessment on the mine.

In short, this team has put together a compelling investment case for Bunker Hill and developed a plan of operations that will vastly reduce the mine’s environmental impact.

But here’s why the timing is critical: Catalysts lie straight ahead that are likely to wake the market up to the reality that this mine, which operated for almost a century and produced more than 165 million ounces of silver and five million tonnes of base metals, is coming back to life.

A Quick Path To Restart

The reasons that the restart of Bunker Hill is much closer than the market thinks are myriad and include:

• In-place infrastructure: Thanks to those 100 years of production, much of the infrastructure needed to return the mine to operation is already on site. This infrastructure would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars to replicate.

• Location: With its location in north Idaho’s Silver Valley (1.2 billion ounces of historic silver production), Bunker Hill resides in a state that’s consistently rated one of the most mining-friendly jurisdictions in the world.

• 100% patented and private claims: Because the mine is not on public lands, Bunker Hill can bypass a good portion of the state and federal permitting process, which will allow the company to be in commercial production within 18-24 months of raising project finance.

Supportive local community: Just about everyone the company has spoken with in the Silver Valley area has expressed support for restarting the mine, based on the very positive economic impact it would provide the region, the area’s long, proud history of mining and the fact that the Bunker Hill Mine is an icon the community would love to see come back.

• Only one EPA hurdle to clear: Bunker Hill is in the final stages of negotiating a final, $19 million payment to cover the reclamation costs on the mine.

All these factors play into a shortened timeline to start operations at Bunker Hill, making it a development-stage project that has a great shot to get greenlighted soon.

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Compelling Economics

Indeed, Bunker Hill Mining has already crunched the numbers on mine, and they are compelling.

Applying conservative metals prices and a 5% discount rate, a recent PEA put a net present value of mining current resources at $143 million with an after-tax IRR at 35%.

That after-tax NPV jumps to $245 million using spot metal prices and that’s before consideration of the high-grade silver exploration potential.

The mine would have an 11-year life and require a very manageable $44 million of initial capital expenses. The payback period on that capex would be 2.6 years.

The mine would generate average annual cash flow of $25 million using those conservative metals prices and of more than $35 million using spot metal prices.

With a market cap currently hovering under C$30 million, the opportunity here is clear: As Bunker Hill starts knocking down the remaining hurdles to a mine restart, a re-rating toward that (conservative) NPV figure seems likely.

A Zero Footprint Vision

And thanks to its “zero footprint, zero direct emission” plan for a restart, Bunker Hill Mining is likely to clearly those hurdles pretty quickly.

Because the mine’s underground development is already in place, there will be minimal surface disturbance. And thanks to abundant, nearby hydroelectric power, the emissions impact of the mine will be de minimis.

Perhaps the most important reason why the surface disturbance will be minimal is the processing plant will be underground, which means the company can store the tailings underground in historic voids and stopes and, therefore, avoid surface tailings.

Equally important are the company’s plans to build a pre-treatment plant for the ore that removes more than 70% of the mine’s effluent. That will curtail the mine’s impact on the water supply.

And, of course, Bunker Hill will continue to work closely with the EPA and other stakeholders to ensure the restart is as environmentally friendly as possible.

Likely Lots Of Silver Left

There’s also lots of blue sky left at on this project.

Consider the very significant ore that could be accessed after a dewatering process takes place below the 4,000-foot depth level. As the graphic below makes clear, other orebodies in the Silver Valley area were mined to a much deeper level.

Company executives point out that, even after almost 100 years of mining, the mine never came close to running out of ore — it always seemed to have 5-10 years of mine life ahead of it. This orebody just goes that deep.

And the silver-lead mineralization is wide-open at depth, so Bunker Hill will be essentially picking up exploration/mine development where the previous operators left off, but with the environmental issues now solved.

Add in the longer-term potential of the surrounding ground at Bunker Hill, and the prospect that this story will grow larger from here is obvious. Simply put, Bunker Hill believes this mine can produce for decades to come.

Catalysts Straight Ahead

You’re receiving this alert at exactly the right time, as catalysts for a potential re-rating of Bunker Hill Mining lie directly ahead.

The company expects the final settlement with the EPA to wrap up shortly. Then there’s likely the announcement of the final purchase of the property and a geophysics survey, due in the next few weeks, that should identify new, large anomalies to chase.

Then there’s the relatively small $45 million construction price tag, for which the company is scouring the globe for the most shareholder-friendly (i.e., non-dilutive) funding solutions possible.

Once that very doable financing package is announced, the market will realize, if it hasn’t already by then, that Bunker Hill Mining is on the verge restarting a very profitable mine with extraordinary exploration upside.

And, just as this report was going to press, we got word that Bunker Hill is set to form a 50-50 joint venture with MineWater Finance to explore Colorado’s London Mining District (home to more than 650,000 ounces of gold production at a high grade of 23 g/t).

This addition, if and when closed, would add a historic gold reserve of more than 220,000 ounces and a good bit of upside (plus a gold component), to the story of renewed production at the Bunker Hill Mine.

Again, though, most investors are asleep at the switch on this one — making this a great time to consider adding Bunker Hill Mining to your portfolio.

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