i-80 Gold Corp., a well-financed mining company, closed its fourth quarter with a private equity placement for $81 million, and rounded out a financing package with Orion and Sprott and funded $60 million against convertible debt to advance its portfolio of projects in the goldfields of Nevada.
For the 12 months ended December 31, 2021, the Reno, Nevada-based company said it completed $228.9 million in financings and a further $75 million to be “funded imminently”.
i-80 Gold has transformed itself by disposing of a non-core asset while acquiring multiple projects that will allow the company to run a major hub-and-spoke operation in Nevada. In 2021, i-80 Gold leveraged its relationship with Nevada Gold Mines to negotiate an asset exchange agreement that transferred Lone Tree, with an autoclave and complete processing infrastructure to the company.
READ: i-80 Gold aims to become Nevada’s second-largest gold producer
The firm’s portfolio now has five projects, Lone Tree, Brooks/Buffalo Mountain, Granite Creek, McCoy-Cove, and Ruby Hill, with the last two projects being recently acquired to complete the pipeline.
During the three-month period ended December 31, 2021, i-80 Gold completed the asset swap with Nevada Gold Mines for the company's 40% interest in South Arturo in exchange for Lone Tree, resulting in a one-time after-tax gain of $106.7 million and $0.60 basic earnings per share, said the company.
During the quarter, it also completed the acquisition of the Ruby Hill Mine and continued pre-development of the underground resource at Granite Creek. The company said it discovered the high-grade South Pacific Zone at Granite Creek.
i-80 said the operating loss for the 12 months ended December 31, 2021 amounted to $16.6 million and was mainly due to increased exploration expenditures at Granite Creek, general and admin expenses as a result of i-80 being a standalone entity, and corporate restructuring costs.
"Beginning on the first day of trading in April 2021, the i-80 team was acutely focused on building a tier-one operations team to realize the company's goal of becoming a significant gold producer in Nevada," i-80 Gold Corp CEO Ewan Downie said in a statement.
"We immediately began executing our plan by augmenting our property portfolio with the closing of several strategic asset acquisitions and commencing mine development,” he added.
Downie noted that by “solidifying” the company’s balance sheet through the “completion of successful financings”, i-80 is positioned to aggressively realize its “peer-best growth plan to become a leading gold producer in the US”.
i-80 is well-funded to realize its ambitions. The company highlighted that its 2021 ending cash balance stood at $87.6 million and it had an additional $30.7 million in restricted cash with a $30 million silver stream and $45 million gold pre-payment expected to be funded imminently.
In conclusion, the firm said that Lone Tree is expected to become “the hub of i-80's Nevada operations and the central processing facility” for mineralization from the first four planned mining projects.
Importantly, Lone Tree is host to infrastructure that, following successful refurbishment efforts, will position i-80 as one of only three companies in the US capable of processing both oxide and refractory mineralization.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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