Site visit: Revival Gold shows ‘exploration sizzle’ in Idaho

BOISE, Idaho – An underground discovery hunt in central Idaho could shuffle Revival Gold’s (TSXV: RVG; US-OTC: RVLGF) development queue, CEO Hugh Agro said this week on a site visit.

The underground potential at Beartrack-Arnett in Idaho is shaping up as a possible third project in Revival Gold’s portfolio after the open-pit heap-leach restart at Mercur in Utah and the initial above-ground stage at Beartrack-Arnett.

“If we can demonstrate continuity of those higher-grade shoots at depth, that could change the order of operations at Beartrack-Arnette,” CEO Hugh Agro told The Northern Miner this week during a blustery Fall day at the project.

Mercur is to be developed first with the open pit at Beartrack-Arnett second. But Revival has started a 3,900-metre drilling program at Beartrack-Arnett, just west of Salmon and about 300 km northeast of Boise via US-93 over the Sawtooth Range. The plan is to step out holes south to the covered Sharkey target and return to deep holes at Joss. Prior intercepts here outlined broad zones of multi-gram gold. A fourth rig operating on the company’s projects has been mobilized to this site.

The move sparks “exploration sizzle” to complement the company’s dual-track heap-leach development work, Paradigm Capital mining analyst Don Blyth flagged in a note Oct. 29.

Watch a video of the site visit below:

Tier one

The combined platform gives investors a pathway to production of roughly 160,000 oz. a year from two U.S. assets in a tier one jurisdiction. Majors and mid-tiers are taking note, CEO Agro said.

Revival Gold has become a timely U.S. gold developer to watch as money returns to the sector with bullion near record high prices. Australia-based private equity firm EMR Capital with 12% of Revival and Dundee Sustainable Technologies (CSE: DST) holding 6% show the miner’s backing. Agro said the market has “turned 180 degrees” for U.S. gold developers.

At 64¢ apiece in Toronto on Friday, shares in Revival have more than doubled this year. It has a market capitalization of $174 million (US$125 million).

Location map of Revival Gold’s flagship Mercur project in Utah and Beartrack-Arnette, in Idaho. Credit: Revival Gold

The enhanced exploration focus comes as Idaho’s regulatory tide is turning. Perpetua Resources’ (Nasdaq, TSX: PPTA) Stibnite mine just started construction. It’s the first large gold project in the state to do so in decades. Meanwhile, Integra Resources’ (TSX-V: ITR; NYSE-A: ITRG) DeLamar project is moving ahead with its environmental review. Investors are keeping a close eye on Idaho, Agro said.

Hidden core?

Revival bets that an orogenic system hosting 4.6 million oz. across 5 km of strike to depths of roughly 750 metres hides a deeper, higher-margin core. The resource base gives a district-scale feel. Beartrack-Arnett hosts 86.2 million tonnes at 0.87 gram gold per tonne for 2.4 million oz. gold in the measured and indicated categories and another 50.7 million inferred tonnes at 1.34 grams gold for 2.2 million ounces, according to a 2023 prefeasibility study.

Key risks remain. Targets south of Joss are blind under Tertiary cover, and geophysics images a post-mineral fault, not ore. The task is to hit narrow sulphide shoots in a braided shear and prove continuity at mineable widths. Deep holes are costly and winter slows drilling; a 2022 wildfire already forced an early halt. Metallurgy for arsenopyrite-rich sulphides, though encouraging, still needs pilot work, permits and offtaker buy-in.

Drilling underway at the Sharkey prospect, deep under the Leesburg Basin conglomerates. Credit: Henry Lazenby

Mercur – a brownfields Carlin-style past-producer just southwest of Salt Lake City – could be restarted by 2029, according to Velocity Trade Capital analyst Paul O’Brien.

It would average roughly 95,000 oz. a year at all-in sustaining costs of about US$1,400 per oz. over 10 years, based on Revival’s March preliminary economic assessment. The company still trades below peer averages on financial ratios concerning its resources, O’Brien said, suggesting the market is undervaluing Revival.

Geology counts

The Beartrack-Arnett heap-leach phase is a modest start to what Revival hopes will be a much bigger prize. In the core shed, Chief Geologist Dan Pace examined an assay from Joss. It displayed yellow-jacket quartzites and quartz-arsenopyrite vein swarms.

“The first objective is the structure,” Pace said. “Hit it, follow it, then find the shoots.”

The high-grade pulses often appeared as brittle overprints on a ductile mylonitic fabric. He described it as classic orogenic architecture. It’s a braided shear corridor along the Panther Creek structure. Mineralization shifts from the east to the west side of the main fault as it moves north through the historic South, Mason-Dixon and North pits.

That thesis is why the Sharkey holes matter; under the Leesburg Basin conglomerates, the team says the structural corridor may continue another 5-6 km south. Much of the higher-grade, underground-amenable material sits at Joss and Sharkey is the covered extension Revival has been waiting to test.

Watch a video of Chief Geologist Dan Pace explaining Joss drill core and the immediate exploration objectives:

Metallurgy

Meanwhile, Revival shared positive results from Dundee Sustainable in August. They tested the GlassLock process to sequester arsenic on a Joss flotation concentrate. This concentrate had about 50 grams gold per tonne but also contained high levels of the toxic mineral arsenopyrite. After GlassLock, the concentrate ran 66.1 grams gold with arsenic cut to 0.19% – a 99% reduction – with no measurable loss of gold and the arsenic held safely in glass.

Agro pitched the outcome as a potential pathway to a direct-to-smelter product from a second-stage underground operation, should drilling firm up scale. Dundee Sustainable boss Jonathan Goodman called his firm’s role “one of the key attractions” in taking a stake in Revival earlier this year.

Infrastructure-rich

From the old adsorption–desorption–recovery plant – still standing and serviceable with minor upgrades – one can trace the story in infrastructure. A 69-kV line drops off the ridge; lined leach pads and solution ponds terrace the valley floor; a modern water-treatment building and substation sit beside a spacious core facility former operator Yamana Gold built in 2013.

In the 1990s, pre-Yamana-takeover Meridian Gold produced about 600,000 oz. from heap-leach oxides. Tossing in historical placer take, roughly 1 million oz. have come out of these gulches. The pads are now reclaimed, grassed and popular with elk. The reclamation job was unusually tidy for an operation of this vintage, Agro noted.

Mineralization shifts from the east to the west side of the main fault as it moves north through the historic South, Mason-Dixon and North pits. Credit: Henry Lazenby

The 2023 prefeasibility study scoped an initial heap-leach restart at about 65,300 oz. per year over eight years for US$109 million initial capital expenditure and it did not include an underground component.

Pace says Joss, conceptually, could support around 1.5 million oz. at five to six grams per tonne if the fault-bend and cross-structure model continues to map and drill as expected. It’s a target he stresses will require much more drilling.

“Walk before we run,” Agro said. “But if we hit, we’re ready to sprint.”