Gold

i-80 Gold expands 2023 drill program at Ruby Hill

i-80 Gold added rigs to its fleet and its primary targets are the Hilltop Corridor and the Upper Hilltop Zone

Published

January 25, 2023

Ruby Hill facility. Image via i-80 Gold.

i-80 Gold Corp. (TSX:IAU) (NYSE:IAUX) announced its expanded 2023 drill program has started at its Ruby Hill Property in Eureka County, Nevada.

The company added additional rigs to its fleet, bringing the number to six activated core and RC drill rigs. The primary targets are the Hilltop Corridor, including polymetallic carbonate replacement deposit (CRD) mineralization, which also includes the Upper Hilltop Zone. Additionally, i-80 Gold is looking into skarn mineralization in the Blackjack and Hilltop Corridor targets, as well as multiple untested geophysical anomalies.

“Outstanding results and new discoveries at Ruby Hill confirm the potential to grow resources in multiple gold and poly-metallic target areas”, said Ewan Downie, CEO of i-80.

The hilltop corridor is a 1.5 kilometer long trend covered in alluvium sand immediately south of the Archimedes pit. Its believed to be the host to multiple feeder fault structures. The alluvial cover has kept it from being tested. The discovery of the upper and lower hilltop zones in the second half of 2022 combined with hole iRH22-61 confirm the geological team’s model that the Ruby Hill property hosts multiple types of mineralization and large scale deposits.

The upper hilltop zone shows strong historic mineralization

The upper hilltop zone is a near-surface, high grade CRD zone on the south side of the Archimedes pit. Previously released results from drilling here include:

0.9 g/t Au, 515.3 g/t Ag, 10.5 per cent Zn & 28.9 per cent Pb over 28.3 m in hole iRH22-43
1.9 g/t Au, 631.3 g/t Ag, 7.4 per cent Zn & 33.0 per cent Pb over 18.3 m in hole iRH22-53
60.2 g/t Au, 908.7 g/t Ag, 1.1 per cent Zn & 15.7 per cent Pb over 10.0 m in hole iRH22-55

Originally discovered by Barrick Gold (NYSE: GOLD) and Homestake Mining, the blackjack deposit is a high-grade polymetallic (zinc, lead, gold and silver) skarn mineralization below the Archimedes pit. Historic intercepts drilling to the deposit include:

27.3 per cent Zn, 3.2 g/t Au, & 13.0 g/t Ag over 24.5 m in hole HC1751
28.0 per cent Zn, 4.9 per cent Pb, 0.3 g/t Au, & 195.0 g/t Ag over 17.1 m in hole BRH-06C

I-80 Gold is presently drilling this target so that it can complete a NI43-101 compliant resource report for the deposit.

The company drilled hole iRH22-61 east of one of the upper hilltop drill platforms to test for skarn mineralization similar to the blackjack deposit in late 2022. The hole intersected high grade mineralization 450 meters south of blackjack, which assayed 12.3 per cent Zn over 39.8 meters. The target area is still open for expansion and is presently being drill tested.

Earlier geophysical surveys over the hilltop corridor identified several prospective anomalies that show potential to be additional massive sulfide targets. i-80 Gold intends to test several of these in the 2023 drilling campaign.

i-80 Gold commissions studies for processing facilities

i-80’s two processing facilities are Ruby Hill and Lone Tree. The company commissioned studies for the start-up for both sites so the company can get a better idea for how to adequately develop the sites for the timing and sequencing of its mining operations. A scoping study originally commissioned in November 2022 to provide capital and operating cost estimates for the potential restart of the Ruby Hill mill also included a potential conversion to a flotation plant for polymetallic (base metal) processing.

“We are currently assessing the potential for a restart of the processing infrastructure at Ruby Hill for either gold or base metal mineralization including the economic opportunity, timing for start-up and the low capital requirement. As such, we are focusing our drill program to help us better understand what the priority should be,” said Downie.

The company completed the study to consider processing oxide goal or base metals, including preliminary estimates of the capital and operating costs required for converting the plant from a mill to a base metal flotation plant, producing two concentrates (lead/silver and zinc concentrates).

Calibre Mining (TSX: CXB) (OTCQX: CXBMF) is another gold explorer operating in the Eureka Battle project in Nevada. It received approval to modify a permit for its Pan Mine heap leach operation from the Bureau of Land Management. Calibre is trading at $1.15 today.

Calibre Mining is a sponsor of Mugglehead news coverage

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