Mexico · Mining

A headline number from a Durango mining congress appears to be a restatement of a study figure from November 2025. The gold price has moved a long way since.

A Mexican gold and silver mine. Ana Paula is a different project, in Guerrero, and is not yet built.

The US$300 million figure attached to Heliostar Ana Paula is not a new cheque. It is the initial capital cost of an underground gold project, as set out in the company’s own economic study.

Heliostar Metals, a Canadian-listed gold miner, published that study on 6 November 2025. The Preliminary Economic Assessment puts initial capital expenditure at US$300.1 million.

Life-of-mine capital comes to US$376.3 million. The number resurfaced this month because a company manager restated it at a mining congress in Mexico.

Where the number came from

Manuel Tovar Jacquez, described as general manager, presented it at the Ninth Durango Mining Congress 2026. The congress was held in Durango on 28 August 2026.

He also marked the formal start of open-pit work at the La Colorada mine. “Hemos convertido de nuevo las actividades de minado a cielo abierto en una realidad”, he said.

That line means open-pit mining has been made a reality again. He added a second thought about the company’s purpose.

“Nuestro propósito en Heliostar Metals es sencillo”, he told delegates. He went on: “construir una empresa minera de la que todos y todas podamos sentirnos orgullosos”.

The purpose, in other words, is a mining company everyone can be proud of. The trade service BNamericas headlined the same figure as an investment of US$300 million in the flagship Mexican gold project.

The evidence points to a restatement of the study capital cost rather than a fresh announcement.

Where the project is and when it would be built

Ana Paula sits in the state of Guerrero, in southern Mexico. It is Heliostar’s flagship development project and stands at the development and pre-feasibility stage.

A Feasibility Study is scheduled for completion in the first half of 2027. The company is meanwhile extending an existing 412-metre production-scale decline, the tunnel that carries equipment underground.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027. Production is targeted for the second half of 2028, so the capital is spent across roughly 2027 and 2028.

Gold. The economics published for Ana Paula assumed a price far below today’s.

The economics behind Heliostar Ana Paula

The Heliostar Ana Paula assessment was run at a base case gold price of US$2,400 an ounce. On that assumption it shows a net present value of US$426.0 million at a 5% discount rate.

The internal rate of return is 28.1% and payback takes 2.9 years. The mine life is nine years, at 101.1 thousand ounces a year after ramp-up.

Life-of-mine production is put at 874,700 ounces. Measured and indicated resources are 742,000 ounces at 5.40 grams a tonne, with 514,000 inferred ounces at 3.96 grams.

Here is the point that matters most for anyone reading the numbers. Gold traded around US$4,357 an ounce on Thursday 17 September 2026, according to Trading Economics.

That is a live quote taken during the session, intraday, not settlement prices. A second price service put gold at US$4,311 the same day.

That is roughly 80% above the base case used in the study. It is also well above the US$3,800 an ounce upside case the company modelled.

Charles Funk, Heliostar’s president and chief executive, called it a low-capital, high-margin mine. “Today’s PEA demonstrates Ana Paula can be a low CAPEX, high margin gold mine,” he said on 6 November 2025.

What the company produces today

Heliostar guided in January 2026 to 50,000 to 55,000 ounces of gold for the year. Consolidated all-in sustaining costs were guided at US$2,025 to US$2,125 an ounce.

La Colorada, in the state of Sonora, accounts for 20,000 to 22,300 ounces. San Agustín, in Durango, accounts for 30,000 to 32,700 ounces.

The 2026 capital plan allots US$6.6 million to Ana Paula exploration and development. A further US$15.0 million goes to the decline extension.

La Colorada takes up to US$5.8 million and San Agustín up to US$9.7 million, with US$4.9 million for other properties. A US$27 million exploration programme is funded from operating cash flow.

The shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange as HSTR, on the OTCQX as HSTXF and in Frankfurt as RGG1. The company enters the VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF effective 18 September 2026.

Gold ingots. Mexico’s president said in June 2025 that there would be no new mining concessions. Photo: Szaaman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Funk has put the trajectory plainly. The company went from one asset and a US$50 million market value to several producing assets in just over six years.

It now targets 500,000 gold ounces a year by the end of the decade. That target was reported by the outlet Minart on 16 September 2026.

The Mexican rules that shape the plan

Mexico rewrote its mining law in 2023. The reform was published on 8 May 2023 and took effect the following day.

It cut the initial concession term from 50 years to 30, with a single renewal of 25 years. All concessions are now awarded by public bidding.

Holders must recycle at least 60% of the water they use, with human consumption taking priority. They must also pay at least 5% of net profits to adjacent or affected indigenous communities.

Consultation with indigenous and local communities was widened. President Claudia Sheinbaum went further on 23 June 2025.

“There is not going to be another new concession — no, there are no new mining concessions,” she said. She added that existing concessions would be reviewed for environmental impact.

What it means in practice

Growth at Heliostar Ana Paula has to come from ground the company already holds. No new Mexican concession is available to it under current policy.

The company said it was preparing a permit amendment to convert granted open-pit permits to a lower-impact underground plan. Submission was expected in the first quarter of 2026, and no current status has been published.

For investors, the gap between a US$2,400 study and a US$4,357 gold price is the whole argument. For Guerrero, the test is whether construction actually starts in 2027.

More: Mexico coverage, every day from The Rio Times.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Heliostar Metals?

Heliostar Metals is a gold miner with its main operations in Mexico and a listing in Canada. Its shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under HSTR, on the OTCQX market as HSTXF and in Frankfurt as RGG1. It runs the La Colorada mine in Sonora and the San Agustín mine in Durango. Its guidance for 2026 is 50,000 to 55,000 ounces of gold.

Is the US$300 million a new investment announcement?

Not in the sense of new money being committed this month. The figure is the initial capital cost calculated in the Preliminary Economic Assessment published on 6 November 2025. A company manager restated it at a mining congress in Durango on 28 August 2026, and trade coverage followed. The underlying project timetable, with construction from 2027, has not changed.

What is a Preliminary Economic Assessment?

It is an early-stage study that tests whether a mineral deposit could be mined at a profit. It models capital cost, operating cost, production and the price of the metal, then produces a value and a rate of return. It is less certain than a feasibility study, which for Ana Paula is due in the first half of 2027. Its conclusions move sharply when the assumed metal price changes.

Can mining companies still get new ground in Mexico?

Not through new concessions. The 2023 reform requires all concessions to be awarded by public bidding and shortens their initial term to 30 years. On 23 June 2025 President Claudia Sheinbaum said there would be no new mining concessions at all. Companies must therefore work the ground they already hold, and amend the permits attached to it.

Sources: Heliostar on the Ana Paula economic assessment, Heliostar on its 2026 guidance and growth plan, Mining Mexico on the Durango presentation, Mine Academy MX on the Ninth Durango Mining Congress, Minart on the company’s growth target and index entry, BNamericas on the US$300 million figure, Norton Rose Fulbright on the 2023 mining reform, S&P Global on Sheinbaum ruling out new concessions, Trading Economics on the gold price