Ewan Downie, CEO and Director of I-80 Gold Corp (TSX: IAU – NYSE: IAUX), joins us for a comprehensive exploration strategy update at Ruby Hill, Granite Creek, and Cove, the bid to takeover Paycore Minerals (TSX.V: CORE), a review of the development work and residual heap leach production in 2022, and what the overall work plan is for 2023.
We start off noting the keen investor interest in the series of news releases from last year and early this year demonstrating that a new discovery of bonanza-grade polymetallic CRD mineralization was made at the Hilltop Zone, part of the Ruby Hill Project in central Nevada. This area is now one of the key areas of exploration focus moving forward, returning attractive values of gold, silver, zinc, and lead in a series of drill intercepts. The FAD Deposit, that Paycore Minerals has been delineating, is just south of this Hilltop Zone area, and Ewan outlines the synergies of the 2 projects being combined.
One of the key advantages that i-80 Gold has, is having the Ruby Hill processing center already permitted and most of the sunk cost and infrastructure in place. This leads to a larger discussion about the unrecognized value of all the work, sunk cost, existing infrastructure, permitting, and scarcity of the additional Lone Tree processing center, which alone is worth more than the current market cap of the Company, not even counting the Ruby Hill processing center in addition to that.
This will be a busy year of exploration at all 3 properties, and we start by having Ewan review the definition and resource drilling going on at Granite Creek to open the deposit along 5 levels. This work is building towards an updated resource estimate for this Project, as well as a Feasibility Study for the underground OG Zone, and PEA for the South Pacific Zone of Granite Creek. Next we discuss the 40,000 meters of ongoing drilling at Cove planned to continue to expand high-grade gold resources there. Next, he outlines that the lion’s share of drilling will be ongoing at the Hilltop Zone at Ruby Hill, where there are still 25 holes drilled that have not been reported yet, and plenty more drilling on tap. Lastly, there is also a PEA and Resource Estimate slated for the Ruby Deeps gold deposit at Ruby Hill for later in the year or early next year.
Ewan expects to see substantial growth to the Company’s total current resources of 14.5 million ounces of gold, and an additional 180 million ounces of silver, as all the drilling underway is incorporated into these different resource updates later this year.
If you have questions for Ewan regarding the ongoing work and strategy at i-80 Gold Corp, then please email Shad@kereport.com.
* In full disclosure, Shad is an existing shareholder of I-80 Gold Corp
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