Revival Gold (RVG) - Idaho Reboot Gets Infrastructure Head Start

Revival Gold is a growth-focused gold exploration and development company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX-V: RVG) and OTC Markets (OTCQX: RVLGF). The company is primarily advancing the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project located in Idaho, USA.

The Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project boasts a multimillion-ounce gold resource and an existing infrastructure of roads, a hydro powerline to site, and an ADR gold processing facility. The project is poised to start its first phase of operations in 2022. The focus of the project will initially be on open-pit heap leaching to produce 72 000 ounces of gold per year with an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $1,057 per ounce of gold. The open-pit leaching operation will, if all should go according to plan, be followed by a second phase mill operation. The second phase will take place between 2023 and 2026 at a much larger production scale.

The Beartrack-Arnett Project has a very promising exploration potential with mineralization outlined over +5 km of known mineralized trend and a further 10 km of favourable geological structure to explore.

Matt Gordon caught up with Hugh Agro, the president and CEO of Revival Gold. Gordon wanted to find out what is going on at Revival and give Agro a chance to boast with their high-quality deposits.

Agro, a mining engineer by training, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mining Engineering from Queen’s University (1989) is no stranger to mining. He has acted in several senior executive positions with Placer Dome and Senator Capital Partners. Continuing in this vein Agro served as executive vice president of strategic development at Kinross Gold Corporation where he was also a member of the executive leadership team. This team was responsible for the strategic and operational leadership of Kinross’ growth initiatives including corporate development, global exploration, and commercial activities in Russia. In this already impressive pedigree, Agro also dabbled in investment banking with Deutsche Bank’s Global Metals and Mining Group.

Company Overview

Revival Gold offers investors exposure to the Beartrack-Arnett’s Gold Project in the tier one (large deposits, low cost, and long life) jurisdiction of Idaho, USA.

Revival Gold is advancing a phased development plan for the Beartrack-Arnett’s Gold Project to reduce the initial capital required to bring it back into production. The initial development will be a low-cost open-pit heap leach gold operation, scheduled to begin in 2022. The scheduled heap leaching is projected to produce 70 Koz of gold per year. After the phase 1 leaching, the development of a mill circuit is scheduled to materialize between 2023 and 2026 and is projected to deliver over 200 Koz of gold a year.

Being a brownfield site, this past-producing gold mine’s existing infrastructure ensures that the surface disturbance will be minimal, appealing to a more eco-conscious mining vision. Beartrack-Arnett will only need to undergo small modifications and upgrades.

In a similar eco-conscious vein, the project will make use of hydropower. By using hydropower, the carbon dioxide footprint of each ounce produced is expected to be very low in contrast with the industry standard. Not only does the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project appeal to the eco-conscious at heart, but the gold deposits are also nothing to shrug at.

The Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project holds significant potential. Firstly, with its 1.4 million ounce indicated resources. Secondly its promising exploration potential within trucking distance of any future processing facility.

From an investor’s perspective, away from the gold potential of the project, it is important to take note that Revival Gold believes in running a tight ship. Agro is proud to proclaim how controlling exploration costs and managing shareholder funds responsibly, enables the company to manage its share count and the underlying value of each share.

From a community angle, the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project has the social and financial potential to provide a significant boost to the local economy as a result of the employment and improved infrastructure opportunities the mine can afford. The project is, therefore, a significant asset to the community and state.

Management

Apart from Hugh Agro, the management team includes Lisa Ross serving as Vice President (VP) & Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Steve Priesmeyer serving as the VP of exploration, Pete Blakeley serving as General Manager, and Melisa Armand who acts as executive assistant and manager of investor relations. The teams’ shared experience in finance, construction, and the safe operation of gold mines make them quite a competent group.

In the area of finances, Ross takes the lead as a Chartered Professional Accountant. Ross has over 15 years of experience in gold mining finances, including the New York stock exchange listing of Kirkland Lake Gold.

When it comes to the managing and developing of exploration projects Priesmeyer takes the reins. With over thirty years of experience as an exploration geologist, Priesmeyer is well versed in the identification and exploration of mineral deposits.

Shifting to the administration and corporate communication side of things Armand easily takes charge. With over 10 years of experience, it seems as if Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project’s admin and communication are in safe hands.

The final member of the management team, Blakeley is an Idaho-based mining professional with over thirty years’ experience including ten years with Meridian Beartrack Co. Blakeley most recently acted as site manager at the Beartrack Gold Project. Blakeley also served as Chief Mining Engineer with Andean Resources Ltd., as Senior Advisor of Mining with Rio Tinto OTX in Salt Lake City, and in various positions with Phelps Dodge Corporation and Glamis Gold Ltd.

President and CEO, Agro believes that successful management lies with the investment of that management in the company. Agro believes that by aligning management compensation with investor return, Revival will continue to grow.

Agro further believes that a key to success is the way management controls corporate expenses, he states:

” …when we make decisions about how we spend money, we think through what we would do as individuals if it was our money. Would we fly business class, would we stay at a better hotel? Would we go to just a single bidder for a piece of work? Would we, dot the i's and cross the t's on the contract to make sure that we're getting the best value.”  

Agro and his management believe that those small expenses all add up, and in this case, they are correct with the G&A rate for Revival Gold being less than $2M a year.

Cash Position

As of 30 June 2021, Revival Gold had a net working capital of $5,408,640 and cash equivalents of $5,948,754. These numbers are a far cry away from what they were in June 2020 with a then net working capital of only $554,391 and cash equivalents of $1,046,527.

The working capital and cash equivalents increased during the year by means of a public offering that opened on 6 August 2020 and ended on 30 June 2021. Revival Gold announced the closing of the offering at $1.10 per unit and a volume of 13,685,000 units. This led to aggregate gross proceeds of $15,053,500. Each unit consisted of one common share of Revival Gold and one-half of a common share purchase warrant of Revival Gold. Each warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one common share of the company at $1.60 for 18 months following the closing date.

One of the key investors in Revival Gold, who did not wait for 18 months, is Orion Mine Finance, a multi-billion-dollar private equity fund investing in the gold sphere and other metals. Orion Mine Finance invested early in the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project, mostly due to its impressive Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA).

The PEA, for Revivals’ heap leaching operation, includes such highlights as 72K oz of gold produced annually over the initial 7 years of operation, delivering 506 Koz in total. This will happen parallel to its milling circuit development. The pre-production capital of the Beartrack-Arnett Gold project is $100 million and the life-of-mine (LOM) sustaining capital is only $61 Million. The final bragging right of the PEA is an AISC of only $1,057 per ounce of gold with a scale potential of 3Moz of gold in resources.

Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project

In June 2017 Revival Gold assembled a 100% interest in the original Arnett Gold Project through earn-in and purchase agreements. 

According to Agro, the Beartrack-Arnett Gold project has three strategic advantages:

1)     The projects’ location in an area ranked among the top in the world.

2)    The infrastructure already available, including an adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR) facility, electrical power, and roads for goods transport.

3)    A very favourable PEA based on the first phase of the project.

As mentioned previously, the Beartrack-Arnett Project is a past-producing asset. A huge positive of this is the considerable amount of data available from past performance, including metallurgical recovery. The Beartrack Mine was operated by Meridian Beartrack from 1994 until 2000 and produced approximately 600,000 ounces of gold in total. The daily volume was roughly 13 600 tons of ore a day with an 88% recovery implementing cyanide heap leaching.

This historic data is available and implemented throughout current operations. Implementing previous knowledge assists in helping to de-risk any potential future mine development. The company’s team also includes several key people who worked at the past-producing Beartrack mine and who bring their knowledge and experience to the current development plan.

Drilling results and resources

Mira Geoscience, pioneers in the application of advanced geological modelling, has been brought in to assist with the location of targets beyond what Revival has currently. Mira Geoscience uses artificial intelligence (AI) in combination with previous geological data to identify high possibility areas where target drilling can occur. Revival can supply Mera Geosciences with about 100km to 150km of drill data encompassing 10s of square kilometres of geophysical data. Revival has also conducted a large amount of soil sampling across their land position and recently created a structural mapping of the area and its deposits. Agro states that in earlier mining years, companies did not have any interest in looking at the structural aspects of this deposit.

Should the technology have allowed, other companies would have found gems in the Ward's Gulch area at Beartrack-Arnett, such as a 10m intercept with a deposit of 71g/t of gold. This intercept lies 450m underground and wasn't of interest back when the operation was produced from an open pit. Agro states that Revival has assembled the structural model and that all of these geophysical pieces and the drill data come together in a fully 3d model. Machine learning is being applied to this model and is used to look for instances where higher grades of gold are present. Revival has confidence that by implementing this AI a much better understanding of the mineralization across the large fault structure hosting the gold deposit at Beartrack-Arnett can be obtained.

The resources available for the phase one part of the project is about 850 Koz at about 0.9g/t gold in a heap leach scenario, according to Agro. Furthermore, he states that the saving on capital costs due to the existing infrastructure of the project will lead to a fully loaded ASIC, which is still 70% to 80% of the current gold price. According to Agro, the 0.9g/t heap leach puts the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project at twice the grade of all their peers in Idaho.

The future of this Revival?

Revival plans to finish its Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) from where Agro believes they will have enough information to make informed decisions about proceeding with construction. After the PFS, Revival will take the next step, with its final feasibility study, detailed engineering, and the permitting aspects of the project. All of this will lead to construction in 2024. If all goes according to plan, Agro believes that Revival will be producing gold at its Beartrack-Arnett site by the end of 2025. 

To find out more, go to the Revival Gold Website