I-80 Gold Corp announced it has finished initial rehabilitation of the underground workings at its Granite Creek mine property in Nevada.
An underground test mining program is currently underway, the company said in a statement.
Reno-based i-80 is hoping to advance underground drilling and test mining on the property, which is one of the highest-grade gold deposits in North America with resource grades of over 10 grams per ton (g/t) gold.
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Granite Creek hosts both open pit and underground resources and is located close to the Twin Creeks and Turquoise Ridge mines owned by Nevada Gold Mines (NGM). The area lies at the north end of the Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend, intersecting with the Getchell gold belt.
According to i-80, the 2021 program at Granite Creek will focus on delineating sufficient resources to develop a mine in the near term.
The test mining program will verify the appropriate methods, cycles and sequences for mining, said the company, and will include both mechanical cutting and conventional mining methods.
Initial mined material from Granite Creek is expected to be trucked over to the nearby Twin Creeks facility to be processed through an arrangement with NGM, announced in September 2021.
i-80 chief operating officer (COO) Matt Gili called the interim processing arrangement with NGM a milestone event, giving the company an ability to process refractory material from Granite Creek.
"As a partner of NGM for several years at South Arturo, which will be transferred to NGM as part of the broader transaction, we have built a strong working relationship and we look forward to continuing to build on this relationship as we realize our plan to develop multiple projects in the State of Nevada,” Gili said.
i-80 is working to complete a preliminary economic assessment for Granite Creek in the near future.
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