Silvercorp targets El Domo mine production in second half of 2027 after 34% of construction completed
Key Facts
Silvercorp is targeting the start of production at its El Domo mining project in the second half of 2027, with construction expected to be completed in June of that year, according to a report published by Primicias on October 28, 2026. The project is located in Las Naves, Bolívar province, Ecuador, and Silvercorp says its expected completion date is July 1, 2027. Construction was 34% complete as of the report date, putting the announced schedule up against the challenge of completing most of the remaining work in the coming months. The company plans to begin initial commissioning tests in July 2027, while Salazar Resources described operation that month as a target. Earlier estimates pointed to production beginning in early 2027, before the date was postponed by six months.
The project’s construction budget is $283.6 million, and Silvercorp said it is unchanged from the revised estimate in February 2026. The previous budget, published in April 2025, was $240.5 million. Salazar attributed part of the increase to the rise in value-added tax from 12% to 15%, explaining that the additional tax can be recovered as a tax credit when concentrate exports begin. The company said the project is fully funded, and Silvercorp received a second payment of $43.9 million on July 31, 2026, under a $175.5 million streaming agreement with Wheaton Precious Metals. The payment brought total proceeds from the agreement to about $87.8 million. Silvercorp owns a 75% interest and operates the project, while Salazar retains a 25% interest funded through production.
Construction was affected by exceptional rainfall in the second quarter of fiscal 2027. Silvercorp said work was halted for 77 days as rainfall reached 620 mm, 489% above the six-year average. Primicias reported that heavy rain associated with El Niño disrupted work for about 70 days, an estimate it gave in its report published in October. The company said the rain repeatedly damaged completed engineering works, requiring repairs, with the tailings storage facilities particularly affected. This requires additional water drainage and diversion work, as well as repairs to the damaged facilities. These disruptions illustrate one of the risks that could affect the schedule targeting operation in 2027.
On construction progress, Silvercorp said foundation work for the processing plant’s buildings and equipment was complete and awaiting equipment installation, while work had begun on a substation and an external power line. The company prepared 10 generating sets with capacity of 17 megawatts to provide an independent power source at the site. By contrast, Primicias reported that the processing plant was at the foundation stage when its report was published, and that initial commissioning tests were scheduled for July 2027. The plant’s planned capacity is about 1,850 tonnes of material per day. The differing descriptions of work stages reflect the timing of the published updates, while the testing date remains dependent on completing construction and preparing the facilities and equipment.
El Domo will be an open-pit mine producing copper and gold concentrates, with zinc, lead and silver as by-products, and Silvercorp estimates the reserve life at about 11.5 years. Primicias says the project will be Ecuador’s third industrial mine and its first medium-scale mine. The company’s technical study forecasts average annual saleable production over years 1–11 of 24 million pounds of copper and 27,000 ounces of gold, alongside 26 million pounds of zinc, 529,000 ounces of silver and 0.7 million pounds of lead. Silvercorp estimates after-tax net present value at a 8% discount rate at about $571 million, an internal rate of return of 46%, and a payback period of about 3 years. These are company estimates in the technical study, and their realization depends on the project operating according to the announced plans.
On the legal timeline, Curimining said the court rejected a second protective action related to the project, according to a document Silvercorp cited in August 2025. An earlier action had challenged the environmental permit and consultation process, and Ecuador’s Constitutional Court upheld the environmental permit in that case. The published information does not establish that the more recent ruling specifically rejected an order to annul construction permits, nor does it in itself change the announced implementation dates. An investment protection agreement with the government of Ecuador gives the project benefits through March 2033, according to Silvercorp. The announced operating target remains the second half of 2027, with construction expected to be completed in June and initial testing to begin in July.