Sponsored article: Revival Gold preps for 2027 Mercur decision after strong assays

Revival Gold (TSXV: RVG; US-OTC: RVLGF) has released assays bolstering confidence in its past-producing Mercur gold project in Utah as it works towards a construction decision by early 2028.

Drill hole RMC25-028 cut 25 metres grading 4.2 grams gold per tonne from 43 metres depth, including 5.7 metres at 9.8 grams gold in near-surface oxide gold mineralization, the company said March 4. Additional results showed 7.1 metres at 6.5 grams gold from 35 metres in hole RMC25-025. That followed 1 gram gold over 30.5 metres at 25.9 metres down hole RM25-165 in February.

Revival has completed 13,000 metres of drilling in preparation for a prefeasibility study (PFS) at Mercur, which it plans to publish in early 2027. The company has started permitting work at the site 57 km southwest of Salt Lake City for a first stage aimed at producing typically 95,000-105,000 oz. gold a year, according to a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) issued last year. It plans to make a construction decision following its feasibility study completion at the end of next year.

“It’s a relatively modest-scale initial project,” CEO Hugh Agro said. “But with the land package we have and this being a Carlin-type system – these are the big gold systems in Nevada that host multi-million-ounce gold deposits – we think that this is only the start and that the project will grow from here.”

Existing infrastructure

The Mercur mine produced around 2.6 million oz. gold from the 1870s through its most recent run under Barrick Mining (TSX: ABX; NYSE: B) between 1985 and 1997, including roughly 1.4–1.5 million oz. from modern operations, according to historical records and company disclosures.

The project’s location on private land, with existing infrastructure from its previous life as an active mine and without water features to impact permitting, should make for a short two-year approvals process, Agro said. Revival plans to move quickly on the heap-leach known resource with a development capital investment of $208 million to generate free cash flow that Agro said will fund subsequent exploration.

Mercur hosts 35.3 million indicated tonnes grading 0.66 gram gold for 746,000 contained oz., according to the 2024 PEA. The project has a further 36.2 million inferred tonnes at 0.54 gram gold for 626,000 contained ounces.

“These are the sorts of deposits that can be hugely transformational to a company,” Agro said. “Indeed, the Goldstrike Mine in Nevada started as a small cast off open pit heap leach operation in a Carlin system that grew into the muliti-million-ounce mine that built Barrick”.

Hugh Agro, CEO of Revival Gold, leads a site visit at the Mercur project in Utah.Credit: Henry Lazenby

Managing risk

Revival’s staged approach is key to managing exploration and development risk for investors, the CEO said.

“That’s something the development space has gotten wrong, frequently. We have talked about net asset values and returns but we haven’t talked about the risks associated with those things,” Agro said. “If you are on brownfield sites and you have extensive technical data and experience, including operators who have been running these sites, you have lower risk.”

Revival is planning a further 16,000 metres in drilling this year in support of its PFS and the CEO said the company is on strong financial footing to advance the critical work.

“We ended last year with about $18 million (US$13.1 million) and are funded to get the programs underway,” Agro said, adding that Revival will likely undertake some fundraising later this year in preparation for its busy 2027 feasibility work. The company is considering options for financing Mercur’s development but Argo anticipates a traditional debt arrangement with lender discussions to begin in earnest next year.

Australia-based EMR Capital and Dundee Corp. out of Toronto are “keen financial partners,” Agro said, together holding about 17% of Revival while more than half the company’s shareholders are high quality institutions, he added.

Beartrack-Arnett

Revival continues to pursue ongoing exploration work at the company’s Beartrack-Arnett project in Idaho that has found 5.5 kms of mineralized strike to-date. Step out drilling south of the Sharkey target and at Joss are aimed at building on the higher-margin underground material assoicated with it’s 2023 prefeasibility study resource. The total open pit and underground resource shows 86.2 million measured and indicated tonnes at 0.87 gram gold for 2.4 million oz. gold and another 50.7 million inferred tonnes at 1.34 grams gold for 2.2 million ounces.

Agro said 1.1 million oz. of the 4.6 million oz. contained gold there are open-pit heap leach resources and will be developed under the company’s phased approach.

“We can engineer, permit, and construct a modest-scale open-pit heap leach operation using the existing infrastructure, while at the same time drilling for the bigger, more valuable target in the underground below,” Agro said.

Revival Gold’s chief geologist, Dan Pace, goes over the local geology as CEO Hugh Agro listens. Credit: Henry Lazenby

Past producer

Beartrack produced some 600,000 oz. gold during the 1990s under Meridian Gold (now Pan American) while historical placer operations extracted roughly 1 million ounces. The site has roads, powerlines and a processing plant that will be refurbished. First-stage production and plant refitting could cost $110 million, according to the PFS. Argo anticipates a 3.5 year permitting process.

In 2022, the company reported drilling at the Joss target intersected 115.4 metres grading 3.49 grams gold from about 649 metres downhole in hole BT22-242D, including 11.4 metres at 10.12 grams gold.

Agro sees opportunity for developers with rising gold prices as central banks and others look to add to their gold holdings and sources of new production in safe jurisdictions become increasingly scarce. With brownfield sites and existing infrastructure, Revival offers a lower-risk developer opportunity, the CEO said.

“We see two large geological systems, a clear path to free cash flow and a short path to production.”

The preceding Sponsored article is PROMOTED CONTENT sponsored by Revival Gold and produced in co-operation with The Northern Miner. Visit: https://revival-gold.com for more information.