i-80 Gold Corp. (IAU) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. My name is Karen, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the i-80 Gold and Paycore combination Update Call. [Operator Instructions]. Mr. Gollat, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, and welcome, everybody. Thanks for taking the time to join us on this call this morning. With us today, we have Christina McCarthy, CEO of Paycore Minerals; Jim Gowans, Chairman of Paycore. Ewan Downie, CEO of i-80 Gold; Matt Gili, President and Chief Operating Officer of i-80; Ryan Snow, CFO; and myself, Matt Gollat, Executive Vice President. We're very excited to talk to you about this call today, about this acquisition and the potential it will hold for the combined companies. And with that, I'll pass this over to Ewan Downie.

Thanks, Matt, and it's good to have Christina and Jim on the call to join us today. On the cover image -- is a good image to sort of look at the opportunity, we think that the combined company uncovers. In this image it's a bit hard to see on the cover, but there's 2 drills sitting on the side of the Archimedes pit. And those drills are drilling our recent Hilltop discovery that we believe to be one of the highest grade new discoveries anywhere in the world that we made on the Ruby Hill property. We continue to have substantial success in drilling that deposit out. And in the background, just on the edge of the hill, you can see the shaft, the head frame and the historic workings of the FAD Shaft. And just -- a depth below that, is the FAD deposit along the same structural trend that we're drilling, approximately 2 kilometers away. We felt then, in discussions between the 2 parties and good coordination of data and doing exploration. I think we've worked very well in working together on the exploration plans that both companies are doing and trying to utilize similar data. But as time went on, it became, I believe, for both companies more and more evident that the combined project is of more value than it being 2 separate properties. And the transaction that we announced today, I believe, is going to be very beneficial for both shareholders in i-80's pursuit of developing what we believe will be one of the highest grade new mines in North America. The property that you see -- combined property that you see here expands our land position -- will expand our land position in the Ruby Hill area by approximately for -- 1,468 hectares and provides significant upside. The area basically between where we're drilling in the FAD Shaft is almost completely undrilled and we think offers a pretty huge opportunity for a major deposit. Jim Gowans, who's the Chairman of Paycore was previously the CEO of Arizona Mining, a similar type of deposit as CRD discovery in Arizona. It was ultimately acquired for -- in the billions. So there -- we think that this is a good opportunity for the 2 companies to create true value here of a very significant high-grade resource in 1 of the world's most friendly mining jurisdictions. So Slide 2, there may be some forward-looking statements in this presentation. I urge everybody to read the disclaimer statement as they listen to this presentation. On Slide 3, the Central Nevada -- North Central Nevada, where the Carlin and Battle Mountain trends occur, represents one of the world's most significant gold districts. One thing that we think has been largely overlooked is the polymetallic opportunity or the CRD opportunity. And we're just starting to see numerous companies coming into the Battle Mountain and Carlin trends looking for this type of deposit. The success that we're having and the success that Paycore had in our drill programs really speaks to the opportunity that we have here. The land position here will increase significantly with the combined property. You can see that at the south end of this map. And it solidifies i-80's plan to become a significant producer of gold, silver, lead and zinc. The FAD property will benefit from our existing permitting, the mine permitting that we've established to date at Ruby Hill and what we expect will be shared infrastructure. On Slide 4, the image on the right is a picture of the geology and this large north-south structural trend with numerous historic mines and new deposits. The CRD and skarn deposits along this structural trend are shown here in red. And you can see that these mines occur over a strike length of approximately 10 kilometers. And we think that there's huge opportunities throughout the district for more deposits. The first discovery of CRD mineralization was made in the Eureka district in 1864, and there's over a 100-year history of mining prior to the last work, which was at the FAD property in 1966. Since then, until i-80 and Paycore showed up, there's been very little exploration, the previous owners of this area, Barrick and Homestake largely ignored the base metal opportunity here or the CRD opportunity and the early success that both parties have achieved here to me speaks to the potential of this district. We started submitting our permits to go underground in late 2022. And it's our expectation that will be permitted for underground development here in the second half of '23 that will allow us to fast-track development here. We've -- we're also doing work on converting the existing plant and infrastructure at Ruby Hill to be capable of processing or having flotation cells so that we could pursue flotation of minerals. We're doing metallurgical work to assess what is the best means to do this. And the -- since we started exploration on the Ruby Hill property in mid-2022, we have now made 5 new discoveries on the property, including 4 CRD discoveries. The Paycore's step-out drilling in our opinion, was -- resulted in world-class intercepts, in that deposit, the FAD deposit remains completely open for expansion. On Slide 5, you can see the -- in red is the Paycore position. The FAD deposit sits about 400 meters south of the shared boundary that we have, and you can see up to the north, the Archimedes pit and where the Blackjack and Hilltop polymetallic deposits occur. The structural trends in between us are largely untested and we believe, offer a huge opportunity. Prior to the startup of Paycore's drilling, the resource on the FAD property, the historic resource, was approximately 3.5 million tons at over 5 grams per ton gold, 196 grams per ton silver and almost 12% lead, zinc. That compares favorably with some of the major polymetallic mines anywhere in the world, including mines like LaRonde, I would say that the grades of these deposits, in my opinion, will rival to deposits like LaRonde that is -- represents the flagship mine for Agnico Eagle. The 2.5-kilometer extension in this structural trend, we believe has potential to hold significant deposits and the FAD mineralization being approximately 2 to 2.5 kilometers from our existing infrastructure will mean that the 2 -- the deposits on either side of the boundary will benefit from our infrastructure that's existing on site and our planned underground development. Slide 6 shows some of the intercepts. Paycore did do some drilling in '21 and '22 on the property. And I believe are just in the process of getting prepared to do a significant expansion drilling with their financing that they just closed. And we expect to pick up on their success and proceed forward with additional work. The final slide here on Slide 7. shows some of the -- in 3D, some of the preliminary mine designs that we're looking at to develop the 426 in Ruby Deeps, which are the Carlin-type gold deposits on the Ruby Hill property, immediately below the pit is the Blackjack deposit that is currently being drilled to 43-101 resource status on our property. It had significant drilling that was completed by Homestake and Barrick into that. That is immediately underneath the existing pit. The plan is the portals to come out of the side of the existing pit. And in that image, you can see some preliminary designs at how we would access the Upper Hilltop and the Lower Hilltop, which are -- the first 2 deposits that we discovered here at -- CRD deposits that we've discovered here on the Ruby Hill property and both of which are open for expansion and currently being drilled. 2 kilometers away is the FAD project and in purple are the historic intercepts. The FAD deposit, as I said, is a significant high-grade polymetallic deposit immediately underneath the historic Ruby Hill mine. The historic Ruby Hill mine, you can see, had production grades of nearly 0.9 ounces per ton gold, 21 ounces per ton ounces per ton silver and more than 15% lead recovered. And the area between the Upper Hilltop and that deposit is almost entirely untested other than 1 hole pretty much on the boundary of the 2 properties, historical 729, then it intersected 3 high-grade or 3 significant CRD mineralized zones and was never followed up. The 4H target is a large geophysical anomaly that we recently outlined with our IP survey that is closely associated with a Titan anomaly and is currently being drilled immediately south of the Hilltop deposit, and we are expecting initial results on that target here in the near future. But combined, we think, is pretty significant in the event that we did develop the FAD property from Ruby Hill, you can see the drift would be straight over from our planned underground infrastructure and the FAD Shaft could be used as a secondary escape and/or could be used for ventilation. There's numerous uses that would benefit the infrastructure that we're planning. So the properties work well together. With that, I welcome a couple of comments from Christina, the CEO of Paycore. And then perhaps we can take a few questions. But today's call has to be cut off fairly shortly because we have some additional commitments here today.

Thanks, Ewan. Paycore shareholders, I think that this is viewed as a very positive transaction. It brings immediate -- an immediate premium and significant liquidity as well as exposure to a broader audience, given that i-80 does trade on the New York Stock Exchange. The combined entity will have over 5 -- or sorry, over 4 kilometers of highly prospective strike length along the Holly-Jackson Fault and access to all of i-80's infrastructure, including the proposed scoping study, which includes the conversion of with the current CIL Leach operation to a base metal operation and Paycore will largely benefit from that when there is a production scenario of this silver, lead and zinc concentrates. We believe that the acquisition enables Paycore's shareholders to participate in the success of -- through i-80 as well as their exposure to the district and the collective property that they have throughout Nevada, including in autoclave. They are one of the largest landholders in Nevada, which is great exposure for Paycore shareholders. And both Paycore and i-80, as Ewan said, have been announcing some of the highest-grade exploration results in the industry right now. And specifically from the Ruby Hill District, and we really look forward to the ongoing success of the project through i-80's development of the combined land packages and then controlling which is one of the most favorable districts in the border right now.

Thank you, Christina. Jim Gowans, the Chairman of Paycore, if you have a comment yourself, I'd love to hear it, given your tremendous history in the industry period, which really, in my opinion, one of the legends of the business, and somebody I've always looked up to. So be happy to hear a comment from you if you feel that it's warranted and then we'll open up the floor for questions.

I'd love to make a comment, Ewan. I mean this is really exciting, seeing the combination of what you're discovering around the Ruby Hill area and the potential there. And when I look at the Jackson Fault, the whole area going down to the FAD, to our deposits and what we were seeing as exciting expansion. Now seeing the combination, I think it's really exciting. I think there's going to be lots of news coming out of this area in the next while. And I -- so I think the combined properties has got great potential. It's nice to see with that -- from the stakeholder or shareholder standpoint, a lot more liquidity and to be able to participate in the bigger picture, I think, is really exciting. And I guess, I also think -- have a lot of faith. You have a very strong team, Ewan and Matt, we've worked together. And I think having a really strong operating team supporting the exploration efforts here, I think, bodes well for the future of i-80. So it's really exciting times, and I'm very excited to be -- I'll be watching closely.

Thanks, Jim. Great comments from you and Christina. If there -- I think we'll take 2 questions as part of this meeting. And then there's the BMO conference, one of the biggest mining conferences is active right now. And obviously, it's a pretty busy day for us as we are explaining this to various investors every half hour. So happy to take 2 quick questions. And then, as always, please feel free to reach out to representatives of either company.

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from Don DeMarco with National Bank Financial.

Congratulations on the deal. Just a couple of quick questions. The first is that Ewan, how do you plan to dovetail Paycore's exploration program into i-80s? Will you add some of their -- they've had some good drill results, will you add some of their targets to your program for 2023. And second question, I'll ask it now then listen for your answer. Is there any more targets for land that you're interested in, in the vicinity of Eureka?

Well, definitely, we also try to meet regularly with other neighbors. There's other companies who are active in the Eureka district. We feel there that the entire district has high prospectivity. So of course, we'll be watching what other people do in the area as the -- as their exploration programs continue. Definitely, we expect to continue to expand on the success that FAD had. So likely some continued step-out drilling. And one thing that we found very effective to date has been the MT, so the Titan MT geophysical survey and the IP survey appear to be very -- to be a very effective tool in showing some of the deposits that we have drilled to date and some of the targets that we have just started drilling. And we expect that in the near future, we will expand the IP survey onto the FAD ground to the south and see if there are any closer-to-surface targets like the 4H target that we're currently drilling on the Ruby Hill property.

Okay. That sounds encouraging. We'll stay tuned for drill results as they come out.

We'll take our next question from [ Allan Barry ] with Rocks and Stocks News.

Congratulations to the whole teams from both i-80 Gold and Paycore. I've had the distinctive pleasure to interview Ewan Downie and Matthew Gollat from i-80, and Christina and Jim from Paycore. You guys have made tremendous discoveries on both sides of your borders. And I really just -- I've been very fortunate to have interviewed as this story has emerged. And I can't wait to see where you guys will take it within the future. A particular note that I'm excited about is the geophysical anomaly between the Hilltop area and the area that Paycore has had success. And congratulations to everybody.

Thanks, Allan.

Thanks Allan.

Thank you, Allan. You definitely being one of the biggest cheerleaders of the Eureka district, say, it's good on you to catch on early would be my statement. Maybe we'll take one more question from the floor, and then we'll have to sign off.

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our last question from [ Steve Tuder ] with Sprott.

Ewan, just a little more clarification on the first question. How aggressive will you guys be drilling the FAD property? Will you be just carrying on with Paycore's proposed plan for the year? Or do you think you'll drill it more aggressively?

No, I definitely think we'll probably do the plan. I think the Paycore plan that they were going to do this year is a very good one. The additional geophysics to me will be to be key to get done as well. We are having a lot of success near surface on the adjoining property. So some of the near-surface zones that we're currently drilling will take a bit more priority. But definitely, we see the combined opportunity is something that we'd like to bring to a resource by -- at the close of this year's drill program. So late this year, early next year, like to be in a position to publish a resource for the combined property. And I believe that, that will definitely stand out as one of the higher grade new projects anywhere in the world. And so no, I think it's going to be just continue to do a methodical exploration programs on -- now on the combined side once the transaction closes on the combined property and drilling out what we think is a deposited that rivals in grade, many, many projects and that have been acquired recently for significant billions of dollars. So we're definitely going to be very methodical in how we drill it out, making a bit more effort on the zones that we'd expect to mine early, but definitely the FAD deposit appears to be a very large CRD land, and it is wide open. So we would like to obviously continue to expand that mineralization. And when you're hitting grades of 1 to 8 grams per ton gold with up to over 10 ounces per ton silver and often 10%, 20% zinc with associated lead, this is a very significant target not -- or these are very significant targets, not -- they're not found very often. You don't find things like this very often in our industry, as you know.

What geophysical surveys are working the best for FAD?

What we're finding to be most effective so far, I think is the Titan MT survey, I think, is the best at picking up sulphides to date. IP, we're testing our first of our IP anomalies right now with drilling. So we'll know how the those shapes or those targets, how they are associated with sulphides as well. But I think combining the IP and the Titan appear to be the most effective geophysical method. And those C deposits we're finding down or mineralization down to over 3,000 feet. So it's a very -- especially the Titan MT. So very effective tool, I think, for finding deposits like this. And -- so with that, I think we have to sign off this meeting. I thank everybody for attending who is on the call. And again, please feel free to reach out to myself or anybody on our team or the Paycore team. And Christina, please I'd like you to just make a closing remark, if you're okay with that. Thank you for -- everybody for attending.

Thanks, Ewan. Thanks, everyone, for attending. We're really excited about this transaction and the value proposition that it brings to Paycore shareholders. I think this combined entity is going to really create some exciting news around a broader and combined larger-scale district play here, and I'm really excited to be exposed to the value here and do that through i-80 as they continue to build this project as an exposure to the rest of their assets. So we're excited about the transaction and thanks, everybody, for attending the call today.

This concludes today's call. Thank you again for your participation. You may now disconnect, and have a great day.