KGL RESOURCES LTD (ASX:KGL) - How KGL Moves Jervois From Plan To Construction Artwork

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KGL RESOURCES LTD (ASX:KGL) - How KGL Moves Jervois From Plan To Construction

October 28, 2026 • Andrew Musgrave

0:00 | 11:36

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ASX Investment Opportunity - KGL Resources Ltd (ASX:KGL)

A mining project can look great on paper and still fail on the basics: funding, timing, and execution. We sit down with Sam Strohmayr, CEO of KGL Resources, to unpack how the Jervois copper project in the Northern Territory moves past the point of promise and into real construction, with first copper concentrate targeted for early 2028.

We talk through the board’s Final Investment Decision and what had to be in place before KGL could confidently say “go”. Sam explains the project’s financing in plain terms, including the precious metals streaming agreement with Wheaton Precious Metals and the subsequent equity raise that leaves Jervois fully funded through construction and into production with no project debt. If you care about copper mining investment, mine development risk, and how developers avoid constant returns to market, this conversation is packed with practical signals to watch.

From there, we get specific about delivery: why Sedgman (CIMIC Group) is selected for the processing plant, what’s already changed on site since the baseline economic model, and which long lead items sit on the critical path, especially the grinding mills and the milling circuit. We also dig into the parallel exploration plan, including the integrated 3D inversion targeting, drilling at the Kylie Prospect, and how KGL aims to extend mine life beyond the current plan.

If you found this useful, subscribe to ASX Briefs, share the episode with a mate who follows Australian resources, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Andrew Musgrave

Welcome again to ASX Briefs. And joining me today is Sam Strohmayr, the Chief Executive Officer of KGL Resources, an Australian copper developer that is focused on its high-grade Jervois copper project in the Northern Territory. Sam, thanks for joining me today and welcome to the ASX Briefs podcast.

Sam Strohmayr

Thanks very much. It's great to be here.

Andrew Musgrave

Sam, before we touch on recent announcements, can you just give us a quick overview of the company?

Sam Strohmayr

Yeah, look, KGL Resources is developing the high grade copper deposit at Jervois in the Northern Territory, where it's a copper mine, high grade copper, fully funded, fully permitted, getting into construction now and targeting first concentrate in early 2028.

Andrew Musgrave

And talking about Jervois, the board has approved the FID for that. What does that decision mean for KGL and why was now the right time?

Sam Strohmayr

Yeah, look, I mean it's the culmination of a whole lot of work to get to this point. And it's really the culmination of doing all the drilling, doing all the engineering around the deposit, getting the financing in place, building the team, getting some of our larger contracts in place, and then really sort of bringing all that together and providing the board the confidence that we have all the pieces of the puzzle to make that decision about taking us to final investment decision. And really now it's full steam ahead into construction.

Andrew Musgrave

And touching on the financing, the company describes Jervois as fully funded through construction and into production with no project debt. Can you walk us through that funding package?

Sam Strohmayr

Yeah, sure. Look, and I think it's a really nice position to be in, you know, like a junior miner, if you like, developer sort of now going into construction to be fully funded. And really the catalyst for the funding stack was the precious metal purchase agreement that we signed with Wheaton Precious Metals out of Canada. That was earlier in the year, and that was that's a 300 US million-dollar deal, which really is about, we pay that back through gold and silver production as we develop the mine and get into production. That really put KGL on the map, but it was a great sort of tick of approval and confidence from Wheaton. They're a very large company, they understand mining, they understand geology. So, it's a really sort of an important milestone for KGL, and I will say for Wheaton as well, it's a true partnership. It was their first streaming arrangement in Australia. Off the back of that, we then updated our models, and that's our baseline economic model, which we released in April, and then we were able to go to the market to raise equity. So, we raised 300 million Australian dollars. So, with the combination of those two funding arrangements, the equity and the precious metals agreement with Wheaton, we are now fully funded to take this project through construction and then into operations. We also have, and as part of our strategy, our strategy is to build a mine but also to continue doing exploration. We have $20 million allocated for exploration, which is really about building the life of Jervois, which is currently 10 years, past 10 years. And we also have after that you know a reasonable amount of healthy liquidity to make sure that we're not coming back to the market for further funding. So yeah, it's a nice position to be in. You know, we've certainly de-risked the project from a financing perspective. We're continuing to de-risk the project from the execution perspective in terms of you know having a large number of our contracts already signed. And now we're sort of really progressing with the execution and construction activities on the site. So, it's a you know, we have a quite a quite a sort of clear pathway, if you like, from here to getting into production in early 2028.

Andrew Musgrave

And touching on that construction phase, Sedgman, which is part of the CIMIC group, has been awarded the design procurement and construction contract for the processing plant. So why was Sedgman selected for this project?

Sam Strohmayr

Well, look, Sedgman went through a competitive process, and they're you know a well-established engineering firm here in in Australia and probably internationally as well. They they've been involved with the project for a long period of time. There's been a number of studies that Sedgman have been involved in the sort of pre-fusibility sort of periods. Also done a lot of the sort of consolidation of the test work and studies as well. So, they're you know very well versed in the deposit in Jervois. And so, you know our strategy is to partner with you know reliable partners and Sedgman and certainly that. We have they're doing the engineering procurement and construction, and we'll be working in very closely with Sedgman through this period. And we're also with our own team doing a large amount of the ancillary work on site, so civil work, preparation of the construction pads for Sedgman. So, it's going to be a very integrated approach to the development of the of the processing facilities.

Andrew Musgrave

And investors can now see real activity at the sites. What has been achieved at Jervois since the baseline economic model was released?

Sam Strohmayr

Yeah, actually, we've got to sort of look back, and there's actually a lot of work as is already happening on the site. I sort of think back to sort of April when we did the baseline economic model. We had a small exploration camp with sort of half a dozen people on site. As we speak today, we have 60, I think 64 people on site. We've just commissioned the new 72-person village. So, we've done a lot of the sort of preparation work, civil work, installation of the 72 rooms, new kitchen, catering, all those sorts of things, established flights to the to the site from Alice Springs, crushing, you know, generating construction products on the site. So, there's a whole bunch of things that have happened between April and where we are to today. And I think one of the one of the great aspects of the Wheaton financing arrangement was the early works deposits. We've received two of those early works deposits, 16 million US each. And that's really enabled us to get on with the sort of you know those first early works enabling works on the site to enable us then to sort of get into construction in earnest next year. I think the other really important aspect of what's happened between April and now is a lot of the early engineering has been underway and we've been able to place orders for the long lead items for the processing plant. And so, they're typically you know orders for grinding mills. So, that's all well underway. So that's why we're sort of quite confident with our timetables between now and getting into operation in in early 2028. So, I mean the short answer is a lot's been happening, and we're really starting to see that in terms of activity on the site.

Andrew Musgrave

And as you mentioned, first concentrate is targeted for the first half of calendar 28. What are the critical path items between now and then?

Sam Strohmayr

Well, like I sort of touched on it, it really is the critical path is through the Sedgman construction schedule, and within that it's the procurement and delivery and installation of the grinding mills. I think one of the one of the great things about this deposit is that it's high grade. The metallurgy is excellent. It's a two million ton per annum plant, so it's fairly well you know well established processing equipment that's really available. And it's you know it's quite a nice, nicely laid out, efficient, efficient plant, which is driven by the by the excellent metallurgy. So, the critical path is through the is through the milling circuit, but it's closely followed by other aspects of the of the of the processing plant. And then we have on the KGL side important milestones to make sure that Sedgman have a have a clear sort of path to maintain their schedules. So, we have some critical aspects to deliver in terms of construction pads, pads for the processing plant, etc. But yeah, look, I think the critical path is well understood. We have contingencies in place, and so we feel very confident about hitting that first Copper Con in the first half of next year. Hopefully when you know the copper prices are you know continuing to be quite strong.

Andrew Musgrave

Alongside construction, you mentioned you've set aside 20 million dollars for further exploration. So, what are you looking to achieve?

Sam Strohmayr

Yeah, look, Jervois is a highly mineralized area, and we have a number of targets that we've identified through really sort of consolidating all of the geophysics work that's been done on the site into a integrated 3D inversion model. That's identified four key areas sort of which are new areas and outside of our current resource. So, the plan is to drill each of those targets, and we've drilled the first one of those. It's an area called Area 4. It's also been renamed the Kylie Prospect. It's just to the south of our reward open pit. We'll have the results of that drilling by the end of the year or early January. So really, it's been a systematic sort of logical methodology doing the geophysics work and then doing the drilling. We're also continuing to do further geophysics work on the site in terms of decreasing the spacing between some of that work, it's an MT survey, and that's also sort of building on the work we've done previously. So, I suppose our plan is to continue doing exploration from the surface, and then certainly once we're in up and mining and then in our in our underground areas, we'll be continuing to do sort of infill drilling. We're fortunate that our all of our undergrounds are all open at open at depth and open laterally. There's no geology constraining those deposits. So, we'll certainly be, you know, once we're up and going, doing a lot of infill drilling to sort of build out the life of the operation past the past the current 10 years.

Andrew Musgrave

Finally, Sam, what's the key message you'd like to leave with our listeners as the project nears completion?

Sam Strohmayr

Well, I think the key thing is that the schedule is intact, you know, the capital costs are in line with our baseline economic model released in April. And we're just really focused on delivering this project safely. I think sort of over the next little period of time, the key sort of the contractor for our open pit mining, it's certainly coming up very soon. Our off-take agreements, which haven't been finalised yet, which is still to be negotiated and finalised. And then really, it'll be the just the sort of progressive updates in terms of construction as we get closer and closer to getting into operation. So, they're probably some of the key milestones, if you like, in terms of progress on the on the site and with the project.

Andrew Musgrave

All right, Sam. Well, it's been great to have you on the podcast today. So, thanks for your time, and we'll watch your progress with interest.

Sam Strohmayr

Look, thanks, Andrew. It's been great to be on. Thanks very much.

Andrew Musgrave

That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe, and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.