i-80 Gold Corp. has unveiled a positive preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its Granite Creek project in Nevada, which confirmed the "substantial economic opportunity" that could be realized via developing both the open pit and underground mines there.
The report considered output of 1,245,900 ounces of gold over a nine-year life for the mine in Humboldt county and showed an after-tax net present value (NPV) of US$244.9 million.
The after tax internal rate of return (IRR) was pegged at 34.2%, while the all-in sustaining cost per ounce of gold produced was US$963.40.
"This study contemplates constructing heap leach and CIL facilities on the property for the open pit and trucking refractory material for third party processing," noted Matthew Gili, the chief operating officer of i-80.
"The recent acquisition of the Lone Tree site will allow for the optimization of these facilities as we progress to a feasibility study, potentially leading to changes in the ultimate processing plans versus what is presented in the study."
READ: i-80 Gold intersects high-grade gold in underground drilling at Granite Creek in Nevada
Granite Creek is one of the four projects in i-80's Nevada portfolio and significant progress has been made in advancing the project since it was acquired in April this year, the company said.
Currently, a major surface and underground 2,000 metre (m) drill program is underway, while i-80 is completing additional underground development and beginning test mining ahead of a production decision for the underground mine.
Updated mineral resource estimates for Granite Creek were completed for the PEA and the total contained gold for the open pit in the measured and indicated (M&I) category was put at around 1.3 million ounces of gold.
For the underground resource, there were 337,000 ounces of gold in the M&I category.
The ongoing drill campaign is designed to delineate and expand the underground deposits and to better understand the metallurgy and geotechnical characteristics of the open pit opportunity.
The firm also added that it had started preliminary permitting studies required for open pit mining.
Expansion drilling is stepping out at depth and along strike where the deposit remains open and results from this program will be released over the rest of 2021 and into 2022 with the target of completing a feasibility study, it added.
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com