i-80 Gold Is Building A Bright Future For Mining In Nevada

i-80 Gold Is Building A Bright Future For Mining In Nevada

hello everybody and thank you for joining me today it’s allenberry labu count with the rocks and stocks new and uh we’ve got one of our sponsors on today in uh you and Downey with I80 gold before I get started I got to do the disclosure that uh I80 is a sponsor keep that in mind I’m biased uh I do these shows for the benefit when I with sponsors but I also do it for the benefit of my my viewers and um the bottom line is I whether a company is a sponsor or a pick they go through the same uh same filters and uh when I look through the filters at I8 gold I see a company with a very bright future uh youan thanks a lot for Jo joining me yeah thanks for having me on again it’s been a while since we talked so looking forward to catching up well you’ve been a busy guy you raised $115 million and uh uh that could puts you in a good position to crank up the drills and uh get a lot of news out I understand yes it definitely puts us in a very uh strong position starting the year because essentially for us now this is starting 2024 uh we’re in a much better financial position than than we were going into 2023 and as everybody knows and I’m sure you’re aware the the mining environment has being quite uh quite subdued and 23 was one of the worst years I think on record for developers and explorers and the ability to raise Capital was was very difficult and so throughout 2023 we were less and less aggressive at how we were advancing our projects and I don’t think we hit we we didn’t hit several of the targets we’d set for the company in 23 mainly because we didn’t have the balance sheet to do it and with this uh financing it puts us in a very strong position to be able to accelerate the programs that we didn’t do last year and start the publish the feasibility studies and the other uh Advanced uh studies that we will require we believe uh for the market to give us more credit for what we’ve uh we’ve put together here in Nevada well things are starting to get better 23 was a difficult year but 24 especially just before the pdac things have started to uh get hot for the price of gold as of yet you know it’s not not the same story for the gold stocks but I think that there’s a narrative that you know gold has a potential to go much higher you know you usually in my commentary I try to stay a a year ahead and look only a year ahead and I I recently did a bunch of math on on what I see happening with the price of gold and people may think I’m crazy but I actually think we could see $20,000 gold in the next uh 10 years and the basics basis for that argument is that I think the death spiral of debt is putting governments in a position where they have to return to the gold standard and then you’ve also got that they’re are they are in a big way divesting themselves of US Dollars and US debt they’re turning towards gold as the I think going to be a major player in reserve currencies and also as a major player in um in world trade for all those things to happen gold has to go a lot higher now that’s a very bullish comment that I made but I do think that even if I’m only a fraction correct that uh we’ll we’ll have a very good market for gold and gold stocks what do you think oh I I can agree with you more I I’m not sure I’m going to be out there saying I think it’s going to $20,000 an ounce I certainly hope so it’ll be uh be a great great market for for mining companies if that’s the case but I I I think we’ve seen a really strong obviously we’re at all-time high gold prices now we haven’t seen the reaction in the stocks that’s either through a I believe either a non-belief or probably as likely that investors have just been able for the last few years to stick it in the S&P and you’re guaranteed a return so it’s it’s pulled money away from our sector but uh you’re I think you’re ahead of the curve Allen on the on the death spiral of debt the debt that Canada and the US and you know these Western countries are taking on to keep the the engine running so to speak is crazy and with the interest rates elevated that’s just making it worse the you know I think Canada I read recently is spending more on servicing the debt than they we are in healthc care no wonder are Health Care is so terrible um and and it how long can this go on that the debt just goes up and up and people don’t care so I I think you’re ahead of the curve it is going to come to roost and Gold’s doing what it’s supposed to do right now it’s going up and it’s going to go up more uh because when you look at it at a debt to Gold backing the us only owns about one or two% of gold relative to their debt that to me is ludicrous I I mean what is backing it the PO the promise that they’ll pay or that they can crank up the the the uh the um printing press on cash it it has no basis in in real economics and I think that’s ultimately why the world is going to return to a gold standard yeah definitely there’s no printing press for gold and um it also gold has no political attachment it’s a it’s a currency unlike any other and we see the Central Bank buying is getting stronger and stronger as they’re starting to give give up or sell the US dollar or us backing of their um I guess in in their reserves and they’re putting gold in its place and and we’re seeing that more and more countries are doing it and if you look back back in the early 2000s to uh Beyond 2010 all the central banks were selling now the majority of the central banks are buying and there’s a reason for that and like I said I think you’ve been ahead of the curve on that one Alan and the the world Reserve currency we’re down to now less than 60% US dollar backing as a world Reserve currency we haven’t seen this since 1995 yeah I I think we’re in we’re in a good place it’s just now how do we con how how do we get the investors to come back into buying the stocks I think what we’ve seen is with this gold price rise if you look back in 2022 we had gold go up remember touch 2000 all the stocks were moving uh we were we were over $4 at the time and all-time highs it was it was pretty good times for the sector um here we we are we went past 2000 and well beyond that and yet only some of the major producers have moved the developers are still kind of stuck the small tier mining companies haven’t moved that much if you look at Ora mining as an example they haven’t really participated in this rise like You’ think they should they haven’t done like what the Alamos and the agnos have done so it usually has a trickle down effect when the generalists start to in they buy the I guess the safest ones which are the big producers and once those sort of run out of steam then they start to go down the food chain and ultimately that will lead to the Explorers so I I think it’s a good time to look at some of these companies that have been dropped to 10 cents or less even who have good assets that should get financed and move forward uh because those those companies will will be the bottom of the food chain when it starts but probably get some of the best returns so it’s you the middle straddling both you’ve got the development and you’ve got the exploration and um we’re we’re already starting to see some consolidation in the Juniors uh there was just an announcement today West Red Lake gold uh is uh is merging with another Trilogy I think um so we’re starting to see some of that that um that consolidation in the Juniors the Explorers so I I agree I think that uh we need to attract more and now you’ve got the cash to do the work that tends to attract investors so why don’t we talk about that you and that’s the my favorite subject with your company because you have such great group of assets I yeah I’d say that we really slowed down the pace of advancement going into to the end of 23 and for sure even more here in the in the first quarter of 24 mainly because our balance sheet was getting lower and lower and um so so solving that was really critical for us to get back to work so to speak and um and we we do have some drill results still to come from finishing programs up in 23 and early 24 so we’re expecting some pretty good results to be coming down the pipe here soon but the pace of what how we were working had significantly slowed because we were um you know we’re watching our balance sheet and and with this uh injection we’re moving multiple drills back into Granite Creek at Granite Creek we intended to do a pretty significant drill campaign last year both from underground and surface in order to upgrade uh a significant amount of the resource that we’ve uh identified or the new deposit we’ve identifyed the South Pacific Zone into measur and indicated to publish a feasibility study and we we didn’t get that we did a small surface drill program great results we did some underground drilling I think the National Bank analyst note um that on the back of that release was that the average grade of our underground drilling so far is over 20 grams per ton and um so getting back to getting that deposit drilled off properly to move in into a full feasibility study and that that will position us to start to look at conventional Bank debt which would be better than doing the prepays and the streams and stuff like that as a as a means to grow our company so it’s the first real critical study we want to publish is the one on Granite Creek we stopped drilling a Cove where we’ve been having fabulous results uh just to save uh save capital and on Cove um at Granite Creek I see some pretty exciting stuff that that South Pacific zone is getting bigger as you go to the north the grades are coming up um and uh not too far away to the north in the same rocks in the same structure is a 25 million oun uh gold mine so you’ve got a long Runway there uh to keep on expanding at the South Pacific Zone and South Pacific has to be one of the best undeveloped gold projects in North America yeah we we think so for sure it’s our our furthest North Pole that we’ve drilled to date in the South Pacific Zone was uh 15.6 or 15.7 gram over 6.6 meters so it remains wide open uh we’re going to start following up on that here shortly and and hopefully expanding out to the north there’s an old home Stak hole a further 500 meters to the north that hit two high grade zones so we we believe the structure runs significantly further north and then there’s another mile or 1.6 kmers from that hole to the boundary of turquoise Ridge that is essentially completely untested so we see the upside at Granite Creek to be be Mass potentially massive uh like you said we’re sitting right beside on strike from a 25 million ounce mine one of the biggest gold mines in North America uh so it’s it’s a it’s a we expect it to yield a lot of good results and it will become our first producing center for the company we have even though we are doing some mining there test mining Etc we have never declared a commercial uh production decision because we haven’t had the feasibility study so now that’s going to allow us to elevate that project and can you tell us a little bit about that test mining what is the goal of that and what are you learning from that you and well as we’re going down to the South Pacific Zone we’re going through the OG zone so mining the OG Zone brings some Capital back into us as we’re getting down to the South Pacific Zone um so it’s it’s really and what we’re establishing is what is the right mining method for this operation a lot of people do feasibility studies based on computer uh models models West Red Lake um you know the previous owners there Madson was a was a good example of you know you did a bunch of drilling from surface you you said here’s what the mine looks like the feasibility study looked pretty good they went underground and it didn’t quite pan out yeah and what we’re doing is we’re able to demonstrate yes we can pull the grade out of these deposits we can get the tons we need out of each each Stope and now we want to do the same in South Pacific is put in initial workings establish what is the best mining method we we’d love if we could L haul mine it would bring our Mining cost down and our profit up but you know let’s prove that that works before we put it into a study so we’d like to put in the development here in the probably in the third quarter to get initial stopes we were hoping to do it in the second quarter but now probably the third quarter will be the initial stopes establish what is the right mining method make sure the ground conditions are such that it is going to mine successfully and then finish the drilling and do the feasibility study uh and on the back of that that feasibility study will have real life costs in it so you’re what we’re hoping you’re doing that not just a bank feasible feasibility study but you’re really protecting yourself against a horror show uh and getting it mind that you know you’re not you’re going to avoid those problems of some of these projects that get rushed into production and they all turn out to be a disaster when that happens yeah and we’d like to do the same at at Ruby Hill ultimately uh once we get the underground permits and get going on that program is do the test mining first as part of the definition underground drilling also do the mining method establishment before we publish a feasibility study so it’s based on real world costs we’ve established this Mining cost work this exactly what it’s costing us today to mine a ton at you know using that mining method and that’ll be implemented into our studies so it should be quite accurate studies to to to be frank and some of those out there are not that accurate yeah for sure and and and by that time the underground development the new uh dewatering well we’ve already put in the ventilation will be put in so the capital required to get to that full production would is probably a month or two and very minimal so we’re expecting an internal rate of return that’s going to be sort of off the charts when we publish it um I like the sounds of that I interrupted you on the C Coes why don’t you get into Cove now for us youan well Cove we you know we’ve been having world class intercepts there that’s that’s really our anchor our Top Gold project is what we expect will be our Top Gold project is Cove and we put in the underground development in 23 mid 23 we finished the phase one development we put a drill in we wanted to have two or three going but we only put one in because as I said earlier our balance sheet and going into this program we’re moving a a drill back in and probably two so we’re actually going to start accelerating Cove towards feasibility um whereas we were slowing down and Cove uh results of you know I’m sure we’ve we’ve talked about them a few times on your show of being uh world class up to 30 meters consistently 10 to 30 gram mineralization and we expect that it is going to be our our Top Gold asset in our portfolio and you know it really checks those boxes that you and I off camera when we talk about other projects have often talked about the importance of continuity uh you know that’s really King it’s not just gr it’s the combination of grade and continuity that are king and uh that’s what stands out for me on both uh Granite Creek as well as Cove is the continuity of that high grade yeah both projects are displaying great continuity within the primary ore zones or primary mineralized zones so it’s uh it’s it’s working out well in that regard that next will be Ruby Hill but Ruby Hill is a bit of a different Beast of a gold deposit it’s a much bigger uh more of a bulk mining uh scenario than the sort of uh vein or flatl structures that we’re seeing at the other projects and in places true wids up to 70 meters but grades of 6 to 10 gram of of that material so it’s it’s a really really good gold deposits wide open we only drilled one stepout hole at Ruby Hill in Gold last year and we H over 50 meters of 6.9 Gams so the deposit remains wide open uh to the south from that intercept and then there’s all the poly metallics we’ve been delineating and and uh in our last few side of things you and what would be a ballpark cut off grade um I know you can’t be too specific because you haven’t got all the inputs but in Nevada for something like that a loose uh cut off grade might be if we had the autoclave sitting right beside Ruby Hill it would probably be around three grams I would think probably stockpile some lower grade material than that but somewhere around 3 G would probably be a good cut off grade because Ruby Hill we have to truck all the way up to Lone Tree um I would think that when we ultimately publish our our feasibility model our our next resource on that uh we’ll probably use four to four and a half grams we need that extra gram gram and a half for that lot of those drill holes give you some window there of a couple two three grams and that could make for a nice irr yeah and we haven’t even uh we discovered in late 22 we hit a deeper Zone we call the 428 Zone that was 12 over 12 G per ton over more than 10 meters and we haven’t even started following up that that Discovery and we we do think that is going to be maybe not a big deposit but where it’s located it should be another identical structure of what was mined in the pit and it’s open and a long strike and and widthwise it’ll be a flat Ling structure but it is completely open there’s only two holes that have tested that structure and both return better than 12 G per ton so we’re we’ve there’s a lot of upside at Ruby Hill um deposits open to the north open to the south on the gold front and then of course we’ve uh we spent the last year of our drilling uh going into the end of last year and early this year drilling the poly metallic discoveries we made five different poly metallic discoveries along the hilltop fault structure and that structure is completely open at this point our Southmost hole I believe we hit 114 meter intercept of poly metallic mineralization that really opens up the deposit to the South and uh we’re working through all the innuendos of bringing in a partner that we’ve announced that we intend to bring a partner in the Ruby Hill um and once we work through the different components to that joint venture agreement it’s pretty complex agreement uh because of off takes uh refractory ore would go to Lone Tree what are the processing cost because we won’t do that for free for the joint venture all those things we have to work through in order to get uh get get across a line but we’re waiting to get back drilling there and the the plan would be as soon as that uh JV is is formalized or what we expect will be formalized is at that point we will do a very major drill campaign to expand resources publish the initial resources for blackjack fad and hillt so we expect that to be a pretty significant increase in our resource base and um we’re eagerly uh um well we’re working uh working diligently to try to bring that deal together the in a structure that works for both parties and um uh benefits the property going forward it really is a tremendous property you’ve got the crds you got the high grade you got the scars you’ve got the Carlin uh deposits and you have an asset there that you hardly even talk about but it kind of makes me think of what happened with Equinox at their uh at their greenstone project that you guys uh are the ones that found and moved forward and now and when with Premier gold and the when that was spun out uh or when taken over the shareholders at Premier got shares in E Equinox and in uh and in uh I8 gold and now Equinox has built and is about to turn on a mine and they bought the other 40% that they didn’t have because you guys owned 60% of it at premium and uh it looks like it’s now going to become one of Canada’s biggest mines and you guys brought that from nothing to now it’s going to be one of Canada’s biggest mines and it just goes to show the qu that you guys are always focused on quality and moving those projects forward why don’t you touch a little bit on you know I guess you can give yourself a pat your you and your team a pat on the back for greenstone yeah greenstone’s just um ramping up they’re uh commissioning they’ve commissioned the mill they’re running material through it and should be pretty soon we we hear from Equinox that they’ve had their first gold pour so looking forward to seeing that it’s a project that we started uh the concept came up probably in the early 2000s we spent many years trying to buy it from uh baric uh the project because they owned it and they were just sitting on it and in 2008 we embarked on the drill program where we thought there could be uh kind of like a um uh the aysco um Canadian malartic deposit it was a very similar geological setting is that sitting here uh just north of our our office where I’m sitting today and thought was there could be a very similar deposit sitting right on the Trans Canada highway there and so that that was something we spent a lot of years trying to buy our our theory that there could be an open pit is obviously was was right we drilled it off we permited it and then we were taken over um and Equinox and Orion built it and you know as we were talking about before the show or or Equinox just announced that they’re Orion’s 40% of that project for a billion US essentially a billion US and between an underground and open pit resources that’s for 3 million ounces uh I80 gold has uh you know more than six Mill six and a half about 6 and a half million ounces measur and indicated 8 million ounces in fur so combined over 14.5 million ounces of gold resources and within that is the Mineral Point deposit at Ruby Hill it’s not in our corporate presentation on the website but if you do some work there’s some old presentations that have it and it’s a same size gold deposit as greenstone uh sitting on Ruby Hill it’s an oxide Heap Leach project it’s a big one that’s going to be pretty big capital and is something that we intend to move into pre fees and feasibility probably five years from now but I think if we said we’re building three underground mines and a big open pitch Nevada people would think we’re really crazy so we we put that on the back burner for now but it is a a a greenstone siiz project that we’re just sitting on in Nevada and and another thing we never talk about is that Lone Tree there are refractory or you know sulfide deposits sitting around Lone Tree that we’re just sitting on right now um they’ve got great grades good wids and um we’ve got several of these really good expiration prospects in our portfolio that we we don’t even uh carry in our presentation but could be C company builders on their own and you know Y and we’ve talked about this issue of Nevada where it’s going in the future for mining as the last 50 years have pretty much you know if you want to keep mining oxide deposits in Nevada there just really aren’t very many of them Angelo’s doing that thing at silicon that looks quite quite spectacular um but what else is there and and you guys have an oxide uh deposit that uh may be attractive to some companies that uh want to keep mining oxides in in Nevada yeah it is a uh it’s something that we’ve been approached about before we’ve had discussions about you know how do we advance that project right now and and if you recall uh payor before we acquired fad they did some drilling on the upper parts of that fad deposit and have had some really good intercepts of oxide mineralization well over a gram over good wids and that has yet to be followed up so there we we do have oxide Targets in addition to our sulfide Targets in terms of gold and um right now we’re trying to figure out how do we we haven’t done any Grassroots exploration since we found the hilltop Zone almost two years ago so with all the development heavy portion of our company’s uh kind of History going on right now it’s how do we continue to expiration is you know I’m I’m an expiration is at heart so we’re we’re thinking of different uh different means that maybe we could resume expiration you know do we bring in other partners uh so we’re looking at how do we continue to to stay involved in EXP expiration there’s some good Greenfield expiration targets we have large land packages in the heart of the Carin Battle Mountain Trends and a lot of these properties have we made two discoveries at at Cove that um should be followed up but we’re not following them up uh one of them was a 5 g gold 410 G silver and over 10% lead zinc intercept and we it’s just sitting there all by itself still so we we’ve got some really compelling targets to look for other deposits on our properties and we’re we’re trying to figure out how to do that because you know in in the junior sector the small cap company often expiration successes are what really Drive share prices and we want to uh we want to continue to make sure that expiration is a part of our our lifeblood as as a company well you know I like your your you and me love the exploration but I also like your vision of what’s happening in Nevada you and and the efforts that you’re making to be moving into that future um we’ve talked in the past about the oxides how you know a lot of those have been found and what does a company do if they want to keep mining oxides in in Nevada they got to go underground or if they want to keep mining gold in Nevada they got to start looking at the sulfides and you’re really really your company is one of the the leaders in moving in that direction uh towards the sulfides and you know ultimately I think that’s going to make I80 a pretty attractive Nevada Gold Mining Company yes with the acquisition of Lone Tree we are one of only three companies in Nevada and I believe only one of three companies in all of the United States that has a facility capable of processing refractory ore and in Nevada over the last 20 years the majority of production has moved from being oxide or Heap Leach mainly Heap Leach operations to today where most of the production for Nevada gold mines comes from sulfide mineralization and most good deposits in the state are oxide near surface where they’ve been oxide by Na by Nature over millions and millions of year tens of millions of years and as you go to depth they become sulfide and most companies stop Drilling as soon as they hit sulfide so we’re we’re out there when we hear of somebody hit a high-grade sulfide intercept or if we hear of somebody you can be sure that within 24 hours somebody in our company will make a phone call and say okay can we look at what you hit because we’re definitely looking for deposits that will help us fill that facility for a long long time and ensure a long long future to this company whereas if you don’t have one of these facilities once you run out of oxides you’re done and um so I think that’s one of the big competitive advantages that we have in the state that gets overlooked often well you know you and we went through a tough year in 2023 now that you’re in 2024 and raised a bunch of money I I think you you’re you’re going to get excited about gold moving higher and all the work that you guys are going to get to do so I think that’s going to lead to a lot of uh exciting stuff through the drill bit and with news flow from your company yeah we’re we’re very excited to get I’m I’m very excited for us to get back to work uh very excited about you know stepout drilling um Matt giley and our team in Nevada take care of the operational side and I uh I work with Tyler um mainly in advancing expiration building our ounces um work with Matt golad on the strategy side of the business uh but as we’ve known each other for a long time and as you know I really like the finding of deposits being involved in that Discovery the excitement of a discovery is is what really drives me in this industry and that’ll be something that’ll continue to be a big Focus for me personally well it’s it’s a big Focus for me too you and and I I told you before the show that I recently became a pretty significant shareholder for me in I80 and uh I’m sort of putting my money where my mouth is and I bought the stock and I bought warrants so uh go out there and make a bunch of good news I and uh I I I’m pretty B glad I’ve been able toh take a significant position for me okay well good good to hear that I uh I participate in this financing like I have in everyone and I increased again my share ownership in this company and um there’s nothing more than I want for this company to be a major success and become the next Alamos gold I like the sounds of that they’re a lowcost producer and one of my favorite uh picks in the mining space for lowcost producers so uh keep going in that direction you and and I’ll I’ll be you and I will be happy happy shareholders yep sounds good Al all right I’m gonna close off you yep thank you so there you go folks um I8 gold is uh is now cashed up in a big way I think the fact that they were able to raise over $100 million is a in a in a challenging Market uh is indicative of the quality of their projects uh you know raising 10 20 million has been pretty challenging doing 115 million is a a reflection of the quality of their projects and uh and and I I I’m pretty bullish on where they’re going to grow into uh in the future but of course do your homework speak with your financial advisors have a great day and we will talk to you soon

i-80 Gold just completed a $115 million financing that puts them in a great position to aggresively advance their outstanding assets in Nevada.

Allan Barry Laboucan is the founder of Rocks And Stocks News.

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