Moon River lifts Davidson value as tungsten output quadruples

Moon River's updated assessment puts the Davidson molybdenum, copper and tungsten project in British Columbia at 1.23 billion Canadian dollars after tax, with tungsten output more than quadrupling to 1.51 million pounds a year.

Why it matters: Davidson is still a preliminary assessment with no reserves, but a 1.5 year payback, a pre feasibility study targeted for the first half of 2027 and a tungsten credit that cuts molybdenum costs make it one of the more financeable critical mineral studies in Canada.

Data as of Updated preliminary economic assessment released October 23, 2026. Figure reconciliation: the Mining.com 879 million dollar headline is the United States dollar conversion of the 1.23 billion Canadian dollar net present value; the Northern Miner 1.2 billion dollar headline is the Canadian dollar figure. The item was flagged single source in the gap check; two independent trade outlets report the same company study, and the Event Registry tool failed with a module error.

Moon River Moly has raised the estimated value of its Davidson project near Smithers, British Columbia, by 20 percent in an updated preliminary economic assessment released on Thursday. At an 8 percent discount rate the after tax net present value is 1.23 billion Canadian dollars, about 879 million United States dollars, up from 1.03 billion in a December 2025 study, with the internal rate of return rising to 33 percent and payback shortening to 1.5 years from 2.3 years.

The driver is tungsten. Switching tungsten recovery from gravity separation to flotation lifts planned tungsten trioxide output to 1.51 million pounds a year, more than four times the 334,000 pounds in the 2025 study. Average annual production over a 20 year life at 10,000 tonnes a day would be 13.27 million pounds of molybdenum, 1.5 million pounds of copper and the higher tungsten figure, and all in sustaining costs fall to 6.10 Canadian dollars per pound of molybdenum, net of byproduct credits, from 7.65 dollars.

Initial capital rises with the redesign, to 750.1 million Canadian dollars including 118.5 million in contingency, from 672.3 million. The study assumes long term prices of 23.41 dollars a pound for molybdenum, 4.65 dollars for copper and 43.25 dollars for tungsten trioxide. At September 2026 average prices the value would rise to 3 billion Canadian dollars, a sensitivity the company reports but which is not the base case.

The resource was also upgraded, with tungsten moved from inferred to measured and indicated. Davidson now hosts 80.8 million tonnes in those categories grading 0.182 percent molybdenum, 0.037 percent copper and 0.036 percent tungsten trioxide. The project, inside Hudson Bay Mountain with more than 2.1 kilometres of existing exploration tunnels, remains at preliminary assessment stage with no mineral reserves.

Moon River targets a pre feasibility study in the first half of 2027, has begun baseline environmental studies and is in discussions with First Nations. Shares rose 1.5 percent to 69 Canadian cents on Friday, valuing the company at about 26 million Canadian dollars, a reminder that the study value and the market value remain far apart until financing and permits arrive.

Moon River lifts Davidson value as tungsten output quadruples

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