The exploration, mine development and gold production company i-80 Gold Corp. reported an operating loss of $21.34 million in the first quarter and announced completion of its acquisition of Paycore Minerals Inc., which owns the FAD property near i-80’s Ruby Hill Mine in Eureka County.
The operating loss was up from $13.13 million in the first quarter of last year, while revenue was up at nearly $4.55 million, compared with nearly $2.86 million in the 2022 quarter, including the sale of 2,349 gold ounces in the 2023 quarter.
The company is mining underground at Granite Creek in Humboldt County and residual leaching at Ruby Hill and the Lone Tree Mine along Interstate 80, while engineering continues to bring the Lone Tree autoclave into use, exploration is under way at Ruby Hill and at McCoy Cove south of Battle Mountain.
“We are encouraged to have achieved the milestone of our first gold sale from Granite Creek, with over 400 ounces sold. We continue to advance development and improve production capabilities at this site and expect a ramp up through 2023,” said Ryan Snow, chief financial officer for i-80 Gold.
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He said in the first-quarter operating report released after the market closed on May 8 that “we continued to advance development at McCoy Cove and exploration at Ruby Hill, spending nearly $9 million during the quarter to further understand the Hilltop and Blackjack zones at Ruby Hill and the CSD Gap orebody at McCoy Cove.”
Snow said that with additional capital raised in February the company expects to continue advancing “towards are ultimate goal of being a mid-tier Nevada-focused producer.”
The Paycore acquisition will provide an exploration boost to Ruby Hill, where drilling in the first quarter focused on further definition and expansion of high-grade polymetallic mineralization along the Hilltop fault structure. Test holes also were drilled in the Blackjack Zone, according to i-80 Gold.
The Reno-based company announced the Paycore acquisition was completed in a plan of arrangement that gives Paycore shareholders 0.68 of an i-80 common share for each Paycore share and provides i-80 Gold with 100% ownership of the high-grade FAD deposit.
Christina McCarthy, president and chief executive officer of Paycore, thanked shareholders for their support since Paycore began trading, and “we look forward to participating in the future success of i-80 Gold.”
The FAD polymetallic deposit, immediately south of Ruby Hill and adjacent to the Ruby Hill property, is the down-dip extension of the original Ruby Hill Mine and was successfully expanded in a 2022 drill campaign, according to i-80 Gold. Historically, there was mining at Ruby Hill from 1864 to 1966.
Homestake Mining discovered Carlin-type mineralization at Ruby Hill in the 1990s and developed the mine before a merger with Barrick Gold Corp. i-80 Gold acquired the mine from Waterton and is now exploring the site. Open pit mining ended early last year.
“The expanded land package at Ruby Hill will allow i-80 to aggressively pursue the optimization of the company’s multi-year development plan and to realize its goal of creating one of the largest U.S.-focused diversified mineral producers,” said Matthew Gollat, executive vice president of the company.
“As we complete work related to the restart of our two processing facilities, Lone Tree for gold and Ruby Hill for polymetallics, the addition of the FAD deposit to our impressive portfolio will be considered in our future sequencing plans,” he said.
Tyler Hill, senior geologist for i-80, said in the announcement on Paycore that the “FAD deposit represents one of North America’s highest-grade undeveloped deposits that fits perfectly into our 2023 exploration program where we can have an expanded focus on defining polymetallic mineralization in the Eureka District to better assess the economic opportunity.”
In the operations report for the quarter, i-80 Gold reported that the company shipped roughly 1,950 gold ounces on loaded carbon from Lone Tree leach pads and continued the engineering study and cost estimate for the restart of the autoclave at Lone Tree.
At Granite Creek, the company continued its efforts to upgrade existing dewatering infrastructure to ensure efficient operations and mined oxide material that was hauled to Lone Tree’s leach pad. i-80 also reported 1,870 feet of underground development as part of the ramp-up plan.
At McCoy Cove, there was 7,210 feet of core and reverse-circulation drilling during the first quarter for hydrogeologic characterization to support permitting efforts, and i-80 Gold said there was 10,699 feet of core drilled underground.
As of March 31, 1,308 feet of development was completed, so the total of development at that point was 4,403 feet.
