Hycroft works on mine’s potential in third quarter
Winnemucca-based Hycroft Mining Holding Corp., which is exploring at the Hycroft Mine in Humboldt County, reported results for the third quarter which included news the company is continuing to find high grades at the Vortex and Brimstone targets.
The company also reported unrestricted cash totaling $55.8 million and debt of $122.1 million at the end of the quarter as it continues working toward becoming a silver and gold producer again. The mine is on care and maintenance while exploration continues.
"We have completed more than two years with a zero total recordable injury frequency rate as we continued exploration of the two high-grade silver dominant trends and advanced technical work needed for a sulfide milling operation," said Diane Garrett, Hycroft's president and chief executive officer.
"Our exploration and technical activities are being executed in a targeted, methodical, and cost-effective manner as we move Hycroft up the value chain," she said in the Nov. 5 announcement.
The company stated that because of the high-grade results from Vortex and Brimstone, Hycroft expanded the 2024 drilling program to build on trends identified earlier, and then expanded it again to roughly 27,887 feet of core drilling. The quarter ended with about 21,654 feet of drilling completed.
Hycroft said the current exploration program continues to define the structural framework of the two new high-grade silver trends, targeting down-dip extensions and further establishing continuity of the two trends.
The company also has extended the drilling program east of the current resource as a result of Induced Polarity geophysical surveys completed in the second quarter coupled with a mapping and sampling program to extend Hycroft mineralization to the east in a previously unexplored area within the current plan of operation.
During the third quarter, Hycroft additionally advanced metallurgical testing and engineering necessary for designing a sulfide milling operation. Crushing, grinding and flotation work has identified significant improvements in gold and silver flotation recoveries compared with the current technical report.
The new work increases the economic benefits to the project, the company reported.
Also in the quarter, Hycroft reported it completed designs for a future tailing storage facility that will extend material storage capacity and will meet new and emerging environmental and safety regulations for tailings facilities.
The company also worked on identifying optimal inputs and operating parameters for processing sulfide ore and is continuing trade-off studies to assess whether roasting technology could offer superior economics compared to pressure oxidation.
The Hycroft Mine, about 55 miles west of Winnemucca, operated over the years as an oxide, heap leach operation, but now the focus is on the potential of gold and silver production from sulfide ores. Hycroft said this effort is to unlock the full potential of the more than 64,000-acre land package.
Only 10% of the land package has defined resources.
Hycroft's measured and indicated resources total 10.6 million gold ounces at 361 million silver ounces. Inferred gold resources are at 34 million ounces, while inferred silver resources total 96 million ounces.
On the safety front, Hycroft reported that the Nevada Mining Association awarded the Hycroft Mine the 2024 Operator Safety Award for small surface mines.
Hycroft stopped mining in 2021 after a couple of years of production under the holding company ownership to focus on exploration, and the final gold and silver production from residual leaching ended in early 2024.
Mining started around 41 years ago at the Hycroft Mine, but production has been up and down over the years. The mine which has historically been considered a large but low-grade resource. Vista Gold Corp. stopped mining there in 1998 when gold prices plunged, and production started again when Allied Gold Nevada bought the mine in 2007. However, after Allied Gold's plans for mill construction were completed in 2014 and gold and silver prices dropped, the company filed for bankruptcy.
Reorganization led to the formation of Hycroft Mining Holding Corp. in 2017. Currently AMC Entertainment owns 10% of Hycroft and Eric Sprott owns 8%, according to the company's slide presentation.
