Revival Gold (RVG) - Strong Fundamentals with 4Moz & PFS Due Shortly

Revival Gold Inc. is a gold exploration and development company focused on its 100% interest in the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project located in Lemhi County Idaho. The project is located in Idaho and is the amalgamation of the company’s Arnett Gold project with its neighbouring past-producing Beartrack Gold mine in Idaho.

Company Overview

The company recently published an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of the Beartrack-Arnett Gold Project, which was based on the results of the company’s 2021 drilling initiatives. The updated MRE shows 65,0 million tons of mineralised ore at a grade of 1.01 g/t gold for a total of 2.11 million ounces of gold in the indicated category. The indicated resources have increased by 56% from the mineral resource estimate the company published in 2020.  The updated MRE further shows 46.2 million tons of mineralised ore at a grade of 1.31 g/t gold in the inferred category. The updated MRE’s 1.94 million ounces of gold in the inferred category is an increase of 19% since 2020. The Indicated Mineral Resource includes open-pit heap leach contained gold, which increased by 49% and open-pit mill contained gold which increased by 58%.

The mineralisation of the project remains open along strike and at depth with the company planning further initiatives to see the extent of the mineralisation. The exploration program of the company for 2022 has been finalised, with a total of 7,000 m of core and reverse circulation (RC) drilling planned at the project. The RC drilling campaign will be comprised of 2,000 m at the Joss and Roman Trench areas each, with 3,000 m dedicated to near-surface mineralisation targets identified by the company.  

Beartrack-Arnett Gold project

The Beartrack-Arnett Gold project is located in Idaho and is the amalgamation of the company’s Arnett Gold project with its neighbouring past-producing Beartrack Gold Mine. The company has the option to earn-in 100% of the project with it holding a land position of approximately 5800-hectares which consists of patented and unpatented mineral claims. The project boasts as being the largest past-producing gold mine in Idaho, with its mineralisation hosted over a known trend of more than 5 km.

Revival Gold Inc., recently published an updated resource of the project, with Hugh Agro, the President and CEO of the company explaining it as follows:

“It's been 2 years in the making. 4 million ounces in total, of which 2.1 million ounces are in the indicated category. That's up 56% from our last resource in 2020. Then we've got the inferred category up 19%, to another 1.9 million ounces - a big uptick in resources for Revival Gold.”

The highlights of the resource updates include 2.11 million ounces of gold in the indicated category and 1.94 million ounces of gold in the Inferred category. The open-pit heap leach contained gold of the project increased by 49 % and the project’s open-pit mill contained gold increased by 58%.

Revival Gold Inc. plans to implement the new resource data towards the completion of a pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the project in the coming year, with Agro explaining the updated resource’s effect as follows:

“It sets us up for the PFS and, of course, as you know, in the PFS we can use measured and indicated resources. Therefore, we've increased the quality of the resources, giving ourselves 2.1 million ounces from which to draw an open pit for the first phase heap leach aspect of this project. The PFS is on its way, due at the end of this year and this sets us up for that.”

The updated resource estimate may further enable the project to possess a potential bulk tonnage underground mining phase. Agro explains:

 “It was also a marked change in our underground resource. We've increased the grade in the underground resource by about 40%, and we did that by constraining the resource with a 2.2 g/t cut-off. That makes it higher quality and it leads us in the direction of a potential bulk tonnage underground mining phase for this project. Those two things: the setup for the PFS and the better understanding of our underground resource, as well as the increase in the overall size of the resource, are step changes for us.”

Exploration initiatives

Revival God Inc. has conducted underground exploration at various targets at the Beartrack-Arnett Gold project in the past, with its exploration initiatives to date showing that the majority of mineralisation at the project is susceptible to open-pit mining practices. The Joss, South Pit, and Ward’s Gulch areas of the project however show the potential for bulk underground mining methods. The exploration initiatives of the company in the Joss area previously showed mineralisation of 4.34 g/t gold over 110.6 m, which included a 13.7 m intercept at a grade of 12 g/t gold as well as 8.8 g/t gold over 11.8 m. The company plans to conduct further underground exploration at the project, with Agro explaining the reasoning as:

“We want to show that the underground continues to have potential at depth. This is geology speak, but we're in an orogenic gold system. These tend to be deep, long and very consistent in grade. At 12 g, and 9 g at those kinds of widths, we have something that will continue deeper. We want to demonstrate to our shareholders long before we have any concern about having somebody come and take us over, we want to be sure about what's down there. We want to be able to demonstrate that it is continuing, and so that's where we're drilling first, starting next week.”

The company plans to conduct a total of 7,000 m of core and reverse circulation (RC) drilling at the project in the coming year. Revival Gold Inc. plans to conduct 2,000 m of core drilling at the Joss area, 2,000 m of core drilling at the Romans Trench area, and 3,000 m of RC drilling later in the year, aimed at exploring several additional regional near-surface oxide gold exploration opportunities.

 Funding

Revival Gold Inc. was at a cash position of CAD$ 9 million at the end of March 2022, with 86.9 million shares outstanding. The cash position is thanks in part to a non-brokered private placement offering of the company in early 2022. The private-placement offering of Revival Gold Inc. consisted of 15,500,000 units of the company at CAD$ 0.65 per unit for the aggregate gross proceeds of CAD$ 10,075 million to the company. The units of the offering consisted of one common share of the company as well as one-half of a share purchase warrant of the company. A purchase warrant entitles the holder to one common share of the company at CAD$ 0.9 for a period of 24 months after its issue. Agro explains the current equity market as follows:

“…cash is hard to come by in the equity markets. We're cashed up. We've got a pipeline of exploration and engineering work that we can do, all taking us towards a higher-value project, independent of what happens in the short term in the market. I think that's part of our DNA: choose low risk, choose executable, and choose free cash flow over simply hitting for the lights at the back end of the park.”

Revival Gold Inc. may also look at the sale of its 51% interest in the Diamond Mountain Phosphate project, located in Utah. The company believes that with the recent interest in phosphate the project may serve valuable should the need for further funding arise. Agro explains: 

“…we have a non-core asset in our portfolio, a phosphate asset. I don't know if you've seen what's happened in phosphate recently, we think there's a lot of value in our portfolio… We're looking at alternatives right now, but I just want to highlight that we've got a portfolio and we have other aspects to this portfolio that gives us some flexibility around funding, timing, etc.”

Agro also notes that the company will be able to adjust expense levels to ensure a lower burn rate and the advancement of the project:

“We pride ourselves in being an efficient team. Our finding cost to date, which is 4 years, is running at about USD$ 5 per ounce of gold in the ground. What you can take from that is that we're spending carefully and we're spending effectively.”

Future

Revival Gold will continue with its exploration initiatives as it advances its Beartrack- Arnett Gold project. Agro explains the company’s intent regarding exploration as follows:

“We'll continue to explore while we move towards free cash flow, and our thinking here is that by design, we will make ourselves independent of where the capital markets are, independent in a sense of where the gold price is. We want to be able to produce cash flow from gold whether it's USD$ 1,600 per ounce of gold or USD$ 2,000 per ounce. We want to be able to produce cash flow whether we have the access to the capital markets for broader exploration or not.” 

The company further plans to publish the pre-feasibility study of the Beartrack-Arnett project by the end of 2022 with the drill results of the exploration drilling program currently underway at the project expected by the end of July 2022. The company further plans to initiate the permitting of the project by 2023. Agro states:

“As we get into 2023, we can look at the permitting, the timelines and we can judge where the capital is. We've already started meetings with the debt and debt-like providers to understand where that market is going, and we will choose our moment so that we can optimise value for our shareholders.”

The company is also considering possible mergers and acquisitions in the future, to ensure the advancement of the project. Agro explains the company’s reasoning regarding possible mergers and acquisitions as follows:

“The other thing I want to introduce here is that I think this is a great M&A market. We are looking at peers in other situations where we can see an opportunity potentially, to add to the value of what we've already created for our shareholders, and lower risk. I'm not saying there's anything imminent, but what I am saying is that we're looking. These are the moments when good projects trade at a good value. I think critical mass matters and I think access to financing, which obviously our team has, matters. This is a time to invest. It's a time to position and build on the platform”

To find out more, go to the Revival Gold website