I-80 Gold begins shipping ore to Twin Creeks | Mining

“This milestone is another key achievement by the i-80 operations team, whose hard work and focus has paved the way to make this historic event possible,” said Matt Gili, president and chief operation officer of Reno-based i-80 Gold.

He said “the goal now is to continue to advance development, ramping up to 450 tons per day by the end of the year and further accelerating mining in 2023 to achieve our target of 1,000 tons per day in H2-2023.”

Nevada Gold Mines operates the Twin Creeks mine and processing facilities as part of its Turquoise Ridge complex, and an asset swap between i-80 Gold and NGM allows i-80 to process the gold ore at Twin Creeks until i-80 Gold has its Lone Tree processing facilities in operation.

The arrangement with NGM gave i-80 Gold the Lone Tree property along Interstate 80, and NGM received the 40% of the South Arturo Mine that i-80 Gold owned along with exploration opportunities there.

According to i-80 Gold, given the timing of the testing of the initial ore from Granite Creek under the toll-milling agreement and an initial ore blending program by NGM, the company does not expect to report ounces from Granite Creek until the fourth quarter of this year.

The Granite Creek deposit remains open at depth and along strike from the existing underground workings, and step-out drilling aimed at expanding resources is under way, i-80 Gold stated in its July 5 announcement.

Small Mine Development is the contract miner for the underground operations at Granite Creek. Future plans for i-80 Gold include development of open-pit mining on the property of roughly 1,280 acres.

The company also operates the Ruby Hill Mine near Eureka.

The McCoy Cove Project south of Battle Mountain earlier this year acquired a land package from Baker Hughes at Argenta to provide water rights and a rail heading, along with a barite processing facility and barite deposits.