i-80 Gold discovers high-grade gold-sulphide zone at Ruby Hill, Nevada

i-80 Gold Corp. [IAU-TSX; IAUX-NYSE] reported the discovery of a new sulphide horizon (Tyche Zone) carrying high-grade gold‑silver mineralization from exploration drilling at the 100%-owned Ruby Hill Property located in Eureka County, Nevada. The discovery was made in a previously untested area along the Graveyard Flats intrusive (stock) returning exceptional high-grade mineralization over a substantial intercept width, assaying 45.4 g/t gold and 50.2 g/t silver over 17.5 metres (1.32 oz/ton Au and 1.47 oz/ton silver over 57.4 feet) in drill hole iRH23-18A.

RH23-18A returned 45.4 g/t gold and 50.2 g/t silver over 17.5 metres, including 95.9 g/t gold and 65.6 g/t silver over 7.6 metres.

The new zone was intersected in the directional drilling program being completed at Ruby Hill to test the Blackjack deposit that is located under the Archimedes open pit. No visible gold was visually identified in 18B. This new zone is located immediately east of the Blackjack deposit and to the northeast of the Hilltop Zones that were discovered late in the 2022 program. These drill holes also intersected the Blackjack skarn zone that will be highlighted in a future press release. The margin of the Graveyard Flats stock at depth was almost entirely untested by previous owners and this new sulphide target remains wide open for expansion.

“We have now made seven new discoveries at Ruby Hill since we began testing new targets on the Property in mid-2022,” stated Ewan Downie, CEO. “This program has discovered multiple styles of mineralization in a compact area proximal to the existing pit including high-grade polymetallic base metal (CRD), Zinc-skarn, Carlin-type gold, sediment-hosted disseminated gold, and now visible gold in intrusive.  This confirms our belief that Ruby Hill is host to a world-class mineralizing system and multiple high-priority anomalies identified from geophysical surveys remain untested.”

The company recently received approvals for the construction of new roads to provide access to additional drill pads on the property, allowing for the ability to expand drilling on multiple zones. Importantly, this approval also provides for new drill set-ups on the east side of the Archimedes pit that will provide for additional testing of the Tyche Zone by conventional drilling.

The Tyche Zone intercept displays visible gold and pyrite in a brecciated intrusive rock altered to vuggy silica and kaolinite. The Tyche zone is in close proximity to the Lower Jack (Carlin-type) gold zone that is not currently part of the current resource at Ruby Hill (See Figure 2). Additional drilling is currently being planned at the Tyche and Lower Jack gold zones with the potential to expand high-grade gold resources at Ruby Hill.

In addition to drilling, geophysical surveys are being completed to cover the Hilltop Corridor to the FAD deposit that was acquired earlier in the year with the takeover of Paycore Minerals. The Hilltop Corridor is a 1.5 km long, alluvial covered trend immediately south of the Archimedes pit. It is believed to be host to multiple feeder fault structures and is largely untested by previous drilling owing to the alluvial cover.

Multiple types of mineralization have been identified in the Hilltop Corridor including skarn (Blackjack), CRD (Hilltop/FAD/historic mines), distal disseminated Au-Ag (Mineral Point), Carlin-type gold (Ruby Deeps/428) and the recent discovery of visible gold in intrusive (Tyche).

The company has submitted for approval its plan to develop an underground mine at Ruby Hill with mineralization accessed via a ramp from the Archimedes open pit. Work is also progressing for the completion of updated mineral resource estimates (gold and polymetallic zones) and an initial economic study for the gold zones (only).

i-80 Gold is a well-financed, Nevada-focused, mining company with a goal of achieving mid-tier gold producer status through the development of multiple deposits within the company’s advanced-stage property portfolio with processing at i-80’s centralized milling facility that includes an autoclave.