I-80 Gold – Roadmap To The Future – 4 Projects – Production, Development, and Exploration Update
Ewan Downie, CEO and Director of I-80 Gold Corp (TSX: IAU – NYSE: IAUX), joins us for a comprehensive roadmap to the future production, development, and exploration strategies and at the Ruby Hill, Granite Creek, McCoy Cove, and Buffalo Mountain Projects in Nevada.
We start off noting the keen investor interest in last year of newsflow from Ruby Hill from the discovery of bonanza-grade polymetallic CRD mineralization that was made at the Hilltop Zone, part of the Ruby Hill Project in central Nevada. This area has been one of the key areas of exploration for the company, returning attractive values of gold, silver, zinc, and lead in a series of drill intercepts. We do also focus on the other half of the Ruby Hill being gold dominated, and how the Ruby Deeps zone will be another major contributor to future production from this Project.
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, but that the likely path forward would be to convert this to a base metals processing center, and then eventually to truck the refractory gold ore from Ruby Deeps over to the Lone Tree processing center, in tandem with similar or from Granite Creek and Cove. This leads to a discussion about the next two years production growth really coming from Granite Creek ore from the OG Zone being trucked over to Nevada Gold Mines Twin Creeks processing facility, and that early in 2024 all the drilling to define the newer South Pacific Zone will come into play as that ore begins to add to the production profile.
Next we discuss the 40,000 meters of ongoing drilling at Cove planned to continue to expand high-grade gold resources there over the balance of the next 12+ months, and Ewan highlights their history exploring this deposit, and some of the recent high-grade and wide drill intercepts recently reported to the market. There will be a great deal of ongoing exploration newsflow on tap from the Cove Project well into next year, along with development work as this moves along the timeline into production by late next year or early 2025. We also spend a little time outlining the current studies the company is working on for a simple and potentially quite economic Buffalo Mountain oxide heap leach Project which could be trucked over to the leach pads at their Lone Tree Processing center in the medium-term.
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 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
.
Ewan mentioned in the interview that this inclusion in the Russell 3000 and Russell Microcap Indexes will be bringing in quite a bit of buying volume later in late June. I can’t imagine that being anything but a net positive for the stock, so interested to see how things trade at the end of this month and early July as those funds get positioned.
On a related note about mining stocks being included in the Russell 3000 upon rebalancing, enCore (a top US based ISR Uranium developer and near-term producer) is being added as well.
________________________________________
(EU) enCore Energy Set to Join Russell 3000® Index
@newswire on 24 May 2023
“enCore Energy Corp. (NYSE: EU) (TSXV: EU) is set to join the Russell 3000Ò Index effective after the US market opens on June 26, 2023.”
https://ceo.ca/@newswire/encore-energy-set-to-join-russell-3000-index
After working directly for the KE Report for 2.5 years now, and being on hundreds of calls and interviews, I genuinely think this interview posted today with Ewan is one that I’m most proud of personally.
My perception in speaking with a number of investors privately about i-80 Gold is that they consistently miss the forest for the trees, and get hung up on just one aspect of their business plan, without seeing the whole of it coming together in a 3-4 year plan. Some people are more detail-oriented, some are more swept up in recency bias and what just happened in the very recent past, and then some people are more big picture oriented, and I fall into the latter camp more often than not.
I remember listening to many interviews with mining companies for the last dozen years, where they got stuck on some recent news event on just one project, and then camped out there all interview, and I left having so many questions about the bigger picture for the company, all the other projects, and the overall main gist of the company. There were so many times I checked out an interview for a company I was only casually following (on many different platforms), trying to get an overall update, and then left those interviews confused as to what the main path forward was. Sometimes after 20+ minutes focusing in on just a myopic topic, the interview would end, and then I’d pull up a corporate presentation only to realize there as a totally different message being portrayed by the company’s marketing department.
There are some that, of course, have the opposite problem of being so high-level, that there aren’t enough specific details. Don’t get me wrong, details are very important, and many of the interviews we do at the KER are just that — honing in on the most recent press release and camping out there for the interview to get more granular. However, sometimes, my belief is that the best approach is to widen the scope up and have the CEO paint the big picture of where a company is heading. That was my goal with this particular I-80 interview, trying to strike the balance between the overall vision and intermix the more specific details and value drivers.
In talking with investors about this company over the last 2 years I uncovered that some investors bought strictly due to the fantastic drill results from the new polymetallic CRD Hilltop deposit at Ruby Hill, or they are only looking at the market response to the exploration results at Granite Creek or the recent results from Cove like they are some kind of drill play. Some people even got bearish after looking at last year’s production results (not even realizing that was just the residual ore on the leach pad that was still producing, and not really part of their ramp up to double production each year over the next 3-4 years). This is really going to be the first year of production from the company on ore they are mining; but things don’t really start ramping up and growing in a bigger way until next year in 2024.
Few people that I’ve talked with about i-80, (even existing shareholders and fans of the company) are really envisioning how significant it will be when their 3 main projects – Ruby Hill, Granite Creek, and Cove are all eventually going into feed the Lone Tree Processing Center in about 2-3 years. For this year and next, it will still be a story of ramping up into production by trucking ore from Granite Creek and eventually a few gold areas from Ruby Hill and Cove over to Nevada Gold Mines processing center. However, then there will be a step-change into massive production growth and better economics when things shift over to bringing the ore directly into Lone Tree in-house.
In a prior interview with Ewan, I had him unpack that just the sunk cost of the Lone Tree Processing Center would be more than all their current market cap…. not counting the 2nd permitted processing plant at Ruby Hill. So either they are getting no value for these at all, or they are getting no value for 14 Million ounces of gold and 180 Million ounces of additional Silver. That seems like a pretty huge market disconnect, but the even larger one, is the production growth from 50K ounces to 100K ounces to 200k ounce to 250K-300K ounces over the next 3-4 years (providing their strategy works out).
I felt like we had a good flow to our discussion in this most recent interview, and it was great drawing out of Ewan very concise breakdowns of the exploration/development/production plans at each project, and simplifying an admittedly complicated production growth plan. Then wrapping it up with their inclusion in those 2 Russell indexes was a nice feather in their caps indeed and it felt like a great honor to be congratulating Ewan and the I-80 Gold team for a job well done, and like we are covering a company really starting to hit their stride at the right place and the right time.
This is not investing advice, and I’m a biased shareholder of IAUX, but once in a while at anyone’s work you have one of those moments where you feel like you really have things dialed in. I just felt like sharing all this in the long rant above, because I had that euphoric feeling after recording, editing, and posting that interview with Ewan above, like it actually got to the core of their business model. Hopefully others appreciate these big picture type of interviews for companies once in a while, in tandem with the ones where we do dive in and cover the recent news of the day.
Ever Upward!
I never cease to be amazed at how extensive and detailed your knowledge is about the vast variety of mining companies. I could be awake 36 hours a day and read every second and fall short of what you are able to retain in a small percentage of the time I would need. Your ability to absorb information and relay it is what attracted me to this site. I am selfish in that I take that information for my personal gain and offer little in return. Some times I just contribute humor as I that is at least something helpful in dark times.
Yes this interview added perspective to i-80 that I hadn’t heard before. You could do much less, and I could never express my appreciation enough. Your work does not go unnoticed … it is always amazing.
Hi Lakedweller2 – and thanks so much for those kinds words. We are all still learning every day, and all works in progress.
I too very much appreciate your contributions here and your willingness to discuss the stocks you are buying/selling, the thesis behind those actions, the legal and moral hazards you see in the banksters and central banksters, and general market insights. You also make me laugh when you talk about how bad the Schwab trading platform displays pricing or the arbitrages between them and Interactive Brokers.
We’ll all keep learning together and trying to give the KER crew a slight edge in these wild markets.
Cheers!
I should also add, that 99% of the reason I felt like this interview was so dialed in was really all about Ewan’s ability as a CEO to actually succinctly paint the big picture vision of the company, of each project, and even the specific zones within each project in a way that gets at the heart of what I-80 is trying to do.
Really that is the role of a CEO – to paint the big picture in a simple way that is easy for others to grasp. Anybody listening can immediately pick up in his confidence in answering each question, the lack of hesitation, and impact of each of his statements what a true pro Ewan is. I often edit out a lot of mumbling, stuttering, misstatements, retracement of prior statements, and some folks fumbling for words to describe the business and very vision they are asking others to invest in. In contrast, I hardly had to edit anything Ewan said because he had it all so dialed in. It was a real treat to hear a CEO deliver with that kind of clarity. Shawn K. from Dolly Varden is another CEO like that just is just always at the top his game in any answer… even off mic. Good stuff!
I followed IAU mostly because their CEO shares the same surname as the original lead singer and co-founder of the great band Tragically Hip. RIP Gord Downie.
I think part of Ewan’s flow was that he was asked the right questions based on an informed foundation.
Thanks again Lakedweller2.
Agreed! Most people are lazy and if you are willing to work very hard you will become the wizard behind the curtain pulling the levers. That is how Frank Giustra made it, his work ethic is second to none. Ex also has that quality. DT
Much appreciated DT. I do work hard with the hope that it will pay dividends one day. Until then, I just try to make a little progress every day.
As always thanks for all of your hard work putting up great ideas on this forum.
Frank’s connection with Hilly and Billy did not hurt either, I think ……….. 🙂
In 2007, Giustra and President Bill Clinton launched the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, which in 2020 transitioned into a new independent entity named Acceso
A little Haiti connection,?
On June 17, 2010, Giustra joined with Carlos Slim and President Clinton to create a $20 million fund to assist small businesses in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
2005: $145 million alleged bribes to Clinton Foundation
Frank Giustra donated $31.3 million to the Clinton Foundation, to be followed in 2007 with a pledge of at least $100 million. These amounts constituted the bulk of the $145 million in supposed bribes paid to the Clinton Foundation.[8][9][10]
2007: Uranium One acquired UrAsia Energy
On April 20, 2007, Uranium One, a Canadian mining company with headquarters in Toronto, acquired UrAsia Energy, a Canadian firm with headquarters in Vancouver, from Frank Giustra, who then resigned from the UrAsia Energy Board of Directors.[11][12] Having severed ties with UrAsia Energy and Uranium One in 2007, Giustra had no evident beneficial interest in the subsequent sale of Uranium One to Rosatom in 2010. UrAsia has interests in rich uranium operations in Kazakhstan,[
Thanks for the background checks, Jerry, that must also be considered when summing up a person’s worth. DT
DT……….thanks for the reply…..
Joe Mazumdar mentioned in this quite recent interview with Kai Hoffman that he is interested in (IAUX) I-80 Gold and was going on a site visit to Ruby Hill.
Check that comment out at the 39min 30 second mark:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Joe Mazumdar – Required Viewing For Gold & Silver Investors
– Soar Financially – May 26, 2023
Where’s weekend edition guys?
Some targets for Target
https://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=TGT&p=M&b=5&g=0&id=p79443920587&a=1425674914&r=1685809780249&cmd=print
Nobody thought to mention that the Lone Tree facility is not presently functional and requires a $250M rehabilitation, representing 40% of IAUX’s MC.
The “it’s cheap” narrative doesn’t wash since the market is anticipating either dilution or debt to finance the restart of the roaster.
There’s no mention of the details anywhere that I looked. It’ll be interesting to see their explanation.
The April 3, 2023, news release discusses the scoping study by Hatch and has a preliminary cost breakdown for the Lone Tree facility.
We did mention the Lone Tree processing center isn’t fully functional yet, hence the obvious reason they are trucking the ore to Nevada Gold Mines Twin Creeks processing center for the next 2 years. Yes in 3 years (not imminently) there be around $250 Million in capex needed to restart the Lone Tree Processing center, but that doesn’t hold a candle to the valuation mismatch currently in place just on their present assets, so it’s not a narrative about it being cheap, it’s just math.
In a prior interview with Ewan, I had him unpack that just the sunk cost + permits + man power +specialized knowledge required rebuild the Lone Tree Processing Center (he approximated $1.25+ Billion) would be more than all their current market cap…. not counting the 2nd permitted processing plant at Ruby Hill ($200-$300 Million to rebuild/permit today with inflation, which will also need capex to retrofit it for base metals from the CRD deposits of Hilltop and FAD from Paycore). Their market cap presently doesn’t come anywhere close to just the $1.5 Billion in sunk costs already present in just those 2 processing centers as they are (before the additional capex required).
So either those processing centers are getting no value at all, or they are getting no value at all for their 14 Million ounces of gold and 180 Million ounces of additional Silver. (and those numbers don’t even include all the drilling they’ve done the last 2 years where those resources will be growing even larger and be worth even more).
Keep in mind Great Bear was sold for over $1 Billion without even having a resource estimate out and what equated to 4.5 million ounce deposit once Kinross put out their maiden resource estimate). Skeena has a over 5 million ounces of gold and is nowhere close to being production and has a market cap of $639 (just $200 less than I-80). New Found Gold has a market cap well over a $1 Billion with no resource in place at all and it’s anyone’s guess how many million ounces they’ve legitimately proved up so far. 5 million? 7 million? 10 million ounces?
We are talking about 14 million ounces of gold here for I-80 Gold. Additionally just the 180 million ounces of silver could be it’s own Silver company (and it is likely closer to 200 million+ now after all the additional drilling). Many companies that have been around decades and don’t have that yet. Vizsla Silver just crossed the 200 million ounces mark and is valued at $328 Million, and as the CEO Mike of VZLA always states… they are “criminally undervalued” for the resources they’ve already proved up when compared to where peers like Silvercrest or Mag Silver were valued when they got to the 200+Million ounce point in their growth. So clearly, that seems like a pretty huge market disconnect, just based on what they already have and them being “cheap” isn’t some narrative, it’s the reality.
Now consider that as they release their resource estimate updates from different projects this year and next, those overall numbers of ounces in the ground are going up in a substantial way. Now factor in the production growth from 50K ounces to 100K ounces to 200k ounce to 300K+ ounces over the next 4 years (providing their strategy works out), and their valuation today is way underdone. The $833 million market cap doesn’t even cover the Lone Tree processing center as it stands today… much less anything else.
Here is that interview where we discuss the valuation mismatch to the sunk cost (not even including the valuation mismatch to their 14Million+ gold ounces and 180Million+ silver ounces, and not even including the production profile doubling for the next 4 years in a row), if you’d like to learn a little bit more about the big picture.
Multibagger from here would be your call?
I wouldn’t be an investor in I-80 gold if I didn’t see the potential for it to go up multi-fold from where it is currently valued. If one completely ignores the optionality on all those precious metals in resources going up in value with higher metals prices, it’s easy to see the case for a rerating just as it sits today.
If you add the value of 14 Million ounces of Gold +180 Million ounces of Silver (and both of those numbers will be going up substantially as their resource updates come out over the next 12 months) + $1.25 Billion in value for Lone Tree as is + $200-$300 Million for Ruby Hill processing center as is + production revenues to double each year for the next 4 years, then isn’t that already worth a multiple of $833 Million of the current market cap?
I’d guesstimate that combined value to be around $3-$4 Billion overall. So taking out $250 Million in future capex 3 years from now isn’t changing the overall math that it is way undervalued any way one slices it at present. (not investing advice… just sharing my own opinion and thesis)
It may take ramping up production this year into 2024 to wake more people up after they demonstrate the revenues and eventual FCFs are there. However, then it will come to the point in 2025 where investors need to analyze the real master plan of spending the capital spend $250 Million on Lone Tree to bring in ore from all 3 projects (Granite Creek, Ruby Hill deeps, and and Cove) in-house and maybe $100+ Million in capex at the Ruby Hill processing center to retrofit it for base metals to bring in the additional CRD deposits from Hilltop, Blackjack, and the FAD deposit acquired from Paycore recently. That will be a huge step change in production to get them up into the 200 million – 400 million ounces of production annually, and obviously they already think that will be well worth the candle or they wouldn’t be proceeding with this as the 4 year plan.
Sunk costs are no reflection of value. Throwing good money after bad is a result of the sunk-cost fallacy.
Comparisons to Great Bear, Skeena and New Found are not suitable, IMO, due to many factors, not the least of which include depth to mineralization, relative level of water table, and metallurgy. Lone Tree, Ruby Hill, FAD and Cove all have complex technical issues to overcome which lend much to I-80’s current valuation. It’s “cheap” for a reason.
I enjoy the KER podcasts and appreciate the objectivity of the interviewers, but the I-80 segments approach pump territory, IMO.
First of all sharing one’s investing thesis is not pumping, and I never suggested anyone should run out and buy the stock and disclosed I’m biased as an existing shareholder.
Second, I completely disagree with you (and the company’s management would completely disagree with you) that the “sunk costs have no reflection of value,” because to ignore the monumental cost and time it would take to rebuild and permit both the Lone Tree Processing Center and Ruby Hill processing center would be a massive error in judgement.
Most obvious is that the company traded their lucrative 40% stake in Sourh Arturo for the Lone Tree Processing Center and Nevada Gold Mines didn’t initially want to give it up (because they also saw so much value in it… but really wanted all of South Arturo). Again, if you listen to multiple different interviews with Ewan he has highlighted that these massive sunk costs in permitted processing centers are the key to allowing all these refractory deposits to move development and production scenario and control their own destiny. Refractory autoclaves are very hard to come by and the few existing are controlled by majors (Newmont and Barrick), and would be extremely challenging to permit and build in today’s environment.
Lastly the comparison of the bloated peer market caps with regards to Great Bear’s takeover by Kinross for over $1 Billion dollars for a 4.5 million ounce deposit (that was also deep in many sections) and New Found Gold’s way bloated $1.3 Billion market cap without even having a resource estimate yet (and nowhere close to 14 million ounces of gold like I-80 has) are very fair points to make.
Both of those projects also have their own unique technical issues to overcome as well, and don’t have nearly as good of access or infrastructure as in Nevada and are further away from a mining scenario at the times of those rich valuations.
Skeena same basic points.. but not quite so inflated of a market cap, and at least they have some brownfields prior mining advantages on their project. However, again, they have just over 5 million ounces of gold and don’t have their own built and permitted processing center, have technical smelter penalties to deal with in a development scenario and are valued at just $200M less than I-80…. which has nearly 3 times as much gold plus as they do plus an additional 180 million ounces of silver (not in the remote Golden Triangle where costs are much higher), but in Nevada. Those are glaring disconnects in valuations, and one can easily make the point that IAU is dramatically undervalued in comparison.
All projects have their own unique technical issues to overcome, but I-80 already is mining one of their 3 refractory projects (Granite Creek) and will be mining from a 2nd project (Ruby Hill) by the end of next year. They are well ahead of all those other projects from a development and mining scenario standpoint. Additionally, with updated resource and economic studies coming out over the next year on most key projects, those will further crystalize these points with even more data.
Look, I was an enthusiastic shareholder of Great Bear (and interviewed Chris Taylor a number of times during their run up into the stratosphere, but never pumped it either). Let’s be real here… Great Bear was not worth anywhere what Kinross overpaid for it pre-resource based on what they had proved up at the time (which ended up only being just under 5 million ounces AFTER Kinross went out and drilled another 100,000 meters on it)….That was still great in such a short amount of time and it was absolutely a win for us investors when the deal was announced… but Kinross overpaid in many people’s opinion.
I have been and am still a happy shareholder of Skeena, and like the company and project, and we”ve interviewed several members of management many many times over a number of years. So I’ve got a pretty good handle on the lay of the land with both companies and projects to make the peer comparisons I did for the valuation mismatches. They are quite fair and demonstrate a very inefficient market (like we see all the time in this sector).
As for New Found Gold I’ve talked to dozens of other company management teams, geos, newsletter writers, fund managers, and high net worth investors and the vast majority of them have felt New Found Gold has been out way over their skiis in frothy valuation for the last few years. Look at where they’ve been valued the last 2+ years for an unknown amount of gold in a jurisdiction with few mining production success stories, a difficult time finding mineral continuity to hold the high-grade areas together, and high costs. They’ve been valued more than legit multi-mine mid-tier peoducers that do have known defined resources in the ground. To point out it’s massive premium to I-80 is very germane as a comparison, especially considering how many more resources IAU has quantified in the ground, with some economics in place, more prior met testing work, they are further along on all projects, and are now already in production. That NGG trades at such a huge premium is wildly mismatched and to shrug that off says a lot.
I think it is valuable to look at peer comparisons, and can share my thesis and own perspectives without it being pumping (which is just a swipe and unfounded). All investors should be hunting for where unrecognized value is in a stock and what fundamental data points could get it rerated higher.
I shared the data and my personal investing thesis (after over a dozen years of investing in the resource space and 2 decades investing in general equities), and stated several times it wasn’t advice and never pumped it as you claim. However, unlike most folks on a chatrooms with opinions, my comments were based on the companies own statements and news, after asking the respective management teams (and many other thought leaders in the sector) dozens of clarifying questions over the years on these company/projects/infrastructure/and valuations.
I provided my personal thesis, but I’ve never once said anyone should buy the stock or that it’s the next hot drillplay cult stock. I’ll leave it at that…
There is more in depth analysis available at Seeking Alpha on IAUX…. much of these comments by Korelin report in comments just copy what Taylor Dart has already written about on Seeking Alpha earlier this year for IAUX.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4605381-i-80-gold-high-grade-ounces-at-an-attractive-price
“For starters, Richfield Ventures was acquired for over $140.00/oz by New Gold (NGD) in British Columbia, with a sub 5.0 million-ounce resource base, and Integra Resources was acquired by Eldorado (EGO) for over $170.00/oz with ~2.5 million high-grade ounces in Quebec. More recently, Great Bear was acquired for $1.40 billion with no resources, and even if we assume 8.0 million ounces are proven up there by Q1 2024, Kinross will have paid $175.00/oz. Looking solely at Nevada and world-class projects, the most recent major acquisition ($500+ million) was Fronteer Gold [FRG] which was acquired for ~$2.3 billion based on Fronteer’s Northumberland, Sandman, and Long Canyon deposits. The total resource base at the time was 6.1 million ounces of gold, with Newmont paying ~$377.00/oz.
Newmont noted at the time of its acquisition that it believed Long Canyon could triple in size, and when it comes to high-grade deposits in the best mining jurisdiction globally, it’s no surprise that Newmont paid a premium price. However, even if we bake in Newmont’s assumption that it would triple Long Canyon’s resource base through further drilling (~6.6 million ounces vs. ~2.2 million ounces), it still paid over $219.00/oz on forward projected ounces. I would argue that i-80’s core projects can stand up against Great Bear and Long Canyon from an attractiveness standpoint (high-margin ounces in a Tier-1 jurisdiction, even if they are very different deposits), but its ounces are trading at one-third the value.
The major differentiator worth pointing out is that i-80’s ounces and what I believe it can ultimately prove up (~18+ million ounces of gold or 7.5+ million ounces at core deposits) are trading at one-third the value with infrastructure. In Great Bear’s case, Kinross likely has five years of infill and grade control drilling ahead of it, five years of permitting work, and an $800+ million capex bill for a 15,000+ tonne per day operation in Red Lake. In i-80’s case, I expect Lone Tree refurbishment costs to come in below $260 million or a fraction of the cost and time to get these ounces in production. So, from a total acquisition cost standpoint (price paid for the project + capex needed to get it into production), i-80 has a massive valuation disconnect currently.”
Dave – Thanks for sharing that article from Taylor (which for the record I didn’t “copy” and hadn’t even seen until you just posted it).
Yes, more additional sound reasoning on the vast undervaluation currently seen in I-80.
The sooner i-80 is able to quantify a projected revenue schedule for 2023, the better. We expect there to be leaching at Lone Tree and there to be revenues from the 1750 TPD processing agreement with Nevada Gold Mines at Twin Creeks, but how much and at what cadence? The market cannot assign a multiple for those revenues and project it into the stock until we hear from i-80.
Until we can get beyond the conceptual, this is a US $2.15-$2.30 stock. It will be a shame if the index buying in June occurs without some revenue projection, rough and conditioned that it may need to be.
Thank you for the excellent interview with Downie and for your clarifying remarks post-interview.
Thanks George, and yes it will be interesting to see how the revenues grow over the next few quarters as production ramps up from Granite Creek from the OG Zone for this year, and then additionally from the South Pacific Zone in Q1 of 2024 and moving forward.
I’d be surprised to see management release the revenue schedule by the end of this month during index inclusion on June 26th. It would be hard to know anyway due to fluctuating metals prices, so more likely they’d just message about projected production guidance and estimated costs.
Previously Ewan mentioned the 50,000 ounce rough ballpark production for 2023 but it’s still early days and they only recently started trucking ore over to Nevada Gold Mines Twin Creeks facility. I expect things will be more muted for Q2, but for production to pick up in Q3 and Q4. In 2024 earlier in the year South Pacific production will add to the OG Zone production, and then those will get augmented by some ore from the Ruby Deeps by the end of 2024, further growing the throughput to N.G.M.’s facility.
Regardless of their production profile, even that aside….their stock could easily rerate much higher as the marketplace more fully values the resources they already have in the ground for both gold and silver as well as the value of the processing plant centers they already have (even though they need more capex invested in them), as eluded to above in prior comments.
If Skeena can get valued $200 Million less than I-80 for having 5+ Million ounces, then surely the 14+ Million ounces from IAU is undervalued substantially. Again, New Found Gold has had a $1.3 Billion valuation for over a year and they don’t even have a resource out yet, and likely have nowhere near 14 million ounces of gold. Then on top of that, what should the 180+ Million ounces of silver be worth? I think one of the value-drivers that could move the share price higher will be all the resource estimate updates they’ll be putting out from these projects over the next year, showing how many more ounces in the ground that they actually have.
That is thoughtful context you’re adding when you refer to Skeena and New Found. It surprises me that Crescat Capital does not feature i-80 among the top holdings in their precious metals fund. I’m curious to know why not?
Thanks George. I wasn’t aware that Crescat didn’t feature i-80 as one of their top holdings, but maybe they just don’t have as much of a weighting to it because they are mainly focused on true explorers. I believe they do have IAU in their holdings though as Tavi has mentioned that before, and I know Quinton was relatively positive on the exploration work being done there at multiple projects.
Over time I’d anticipate i-80 to attract less of the retail hordes chasing drill plays, more institutional funds looking for growth-oriented producers/developers. Still they do have a fair bit of exploration on going on across their portfolio, so still plenty of room for exploration upside to boot.
I’m particularly interested to see how the drilling at Cove goes this year with the 40,000 meter program. That hole they just released a month ago is quite impressive.
> Drill hole# (iCHU23-04) – 12.9 g/t gold over 36.1 meters
https://ceo.ca/@newswire/i-80-gold-announces-new-high-grade-results-from-underground
Just like most of the sector, it sold off on the good drill news, which we could point to many companies that had the same thing happen where news becomes a liquidity event. However… can you imagine a tiny explorer putting out a result like that? Retail investors would be doing back flips and cartwheels over that kind of an intercept…
Hi Ex, that drill intercept that you said retail investors would be doing back flips and cartwheels over is nothing compared to what HighGold Mining has and nobody follows this stock and it is a tiny explorer in Alaska. DT! LOL! Here are some of the intercepts: LOL! AGAIN!
120m grading 18.76 G/T AU, including 0.55% Cu, 3.86% Zn, 0.97% Pb, 6 G/T Ag
108.6m grading 10.4 G/T AU, 7.6% Zn, 0.7% Cu, 2.0% Pb, and 8 G/T Ag
71.4m grading 20.9 G/T AU, 9.8% Zn, 0.9% Cu, 1.6% Pb, 9 G/T Ag
137m grading 11.3 G/T AU, 2.4% Zn, 0.5% Cu, 0.5% Pb, 4 G/T Ag
107.8m grading 12.4 G/T AU,7.1% Zn, 0.9% Cu, 1.6% Pb, 9 G/T Ag
75.1m grading 10.0 G/T AU, 9.4% Zn, 0.6% Cu, 1.1% Pb, 6 G/T Ag
74.1m grading 17.9 G/T AU, 7.3% Zn, 0.5% Cu, 1.3% Pb, 7 G/T Ag
56.6m grading 19.3 G/T AU, 2.4% Zn, 0.5% Cu, 0.4% Pb, 3.9 G/T Ag
Agreed DT. Those are some solid drill results from HighGold indeed. Personally I like and do loosely follow the company, and used to be a shareholder in it actually. I had a solid discussion with management at the New Orleans Investment Conference last October, and have invited them on the KER podcast a number of times to no avail. Thanks for keeping us up to date on some of the recent drill hits.
Yes, Excelsior, Quinton knows Ruby Hill well as he was on the board of Timberline Resources not that long ago. Kevin, Tavi and Quinton will come around to feature i-80 sooner rather than later, I’d think, but they’ve had a tough year in 2022 and may not be getting much new money. They’re also warrant hounds in cheap secondaries and those days have passed here anyway, or at least I hope they have. I like the set up here for our June with a big RBC Metals, Mining and Materials Conference, June 15-16 in New York and then the closing of the Russell Re-balance. Your work here is helpful and well-timed.
Thanks for that feedback and those comments George. Agreed on all points.
More excellent drilling results from the Cove underground were released today, “Results Include 24.1 g/t Gold over 14.0 m – 12.8 g/t Gold over 14.2 m – 9.6 g/t Gold over 22.8 m.”
“The underground drilling program at Cove is focused on defining mineralization for ultimate mine planning.”, stated Tyler Hill, Chief Geologist of i-80 Gold. “The first nine holes drilled have demonstrated continuity of gold mineralization in the upper portion of the CSD Gap horizon, confirming Cove as one of the highest-grade development-stage gold deposits in North America.”
(IAU) (IAUX) i-80 Gold set to join Russell 3000® and Russell Microcap® Indexes
24 May 2023
https://www.i80gold.com/i-80-gold-set-to-join-russell-3000-and-russell-microcap-indexes/