High-Grade Results From Hilltop Drilling At Ruby Hill

High-Grade Results From Hilltop Drilling At Ruby Hill

RENO, NV – i-80 Gold Corp. reported positive results from ongoing drilling at the Company’s Ruby Hill Property located in Eureka County, Nevada.  The results are from the 2023 program that continues to demonstrate significant potential to expand high-grade polymetallic mineralization in the Hilltop fault structure and within the Hilltop Corridor.

The East Hilltop Zones were discovered while testing the eastern extension of the Hilltop fault structure where high-grade mineralization had previously been identified in the Upper and Lower Hilltop Zones.  Permitting for additional disturbance was completed in mid-2023 and drilling from new drill setups resumed int the second half of the year. This program has confirmed high-grade mineralization in both the Carbonate Replacement Deposit type (CRD) and Skarn zones and step-out drilling is confirming significant growth potential with mineralization remaining wide open for expansion.

“Drilling continues to intersect extremely high-grade polymetallic base metal mineralization in multiple zones at Ruby Hill.”, said, Tyler Hill, Chief Geologist. “These results include multiple new intercepts in the East Hilltop discovery area including the most significant copper mineralization identified to-date. High-grade, silver-rich, skarn mineralization was also intersected in step-out drilling along the untested southern extension of the Graveyard Flats intrusive.”

The 2023 drill program at Ruby Hill was focused on defining mineralization in the Hilltop, Blackjack and FAD deposits for the completion of an initial NI43-101 compliant resource from these zones. Significant high-grade mineralization was confirmed in all targets and the deposits remain wide open for expansion. In addition to drilling, geophysical surveys have recently been completed to cover the untested Hilltop Corridor to the FAD deposit located approximately 2 km to the south of Hilltop.

The ongoing drill program at Ruby Hill is focused on defining and expanding mineralization in the multiple zones that make the Property a core asset for i-80. This drilling will be included in an initial resource estimate for the polymetallic deposits. Some of the core from the program is being utilized for metallurgical testing in relation to a proposed partnership with a third-party that, upon Closing, will acquire a minority interest in the Property.  Current drilling is being funded by this third party.

East Hilltop Zones – One of the final holes of the 2022 drilling program discovered high-grade skarn mineralization while testing the eastern extension of the Hilltop fault structure with an intercept of 12.3 % Zn over 39.6 m. Follow-up drilling in early 2023 confirmed expansion potential of the skarn horizon and also discovered high-grade CRD mineralization.  Multiple lenses of mineralization have now been intersected at East Hilltop including the most abundant copper grades intersected to-date at Ruby Hill in recent step-out drilling.

The skarn mineralization at East Hilltop is located approximately 300 metres to the south of, and in a near-identical geological setting as, the Blackjack deposit adjacent to the Graveyard Flats intrusive. The area between Blackjack and East Hilltop remains untested.  CRD mineralization is located along strike from the Upper Hilltop Zone.

Upper Hilltop Zone – In mid-2022, the Upper Hilltop Zone was discovered with an intercept of 515.3 g/t Ag, 28.9 % Pb, 10.5 % Zn and 0.9 g/t Au over 28.3 m, leading to the definition of multiple polymetallic CRD and skarn zones on the south side of the Archimedes pit, situated along the Hilltop fault structure.  Mineralization has now been defined over a strike length of approximately 750 metres including the Upper, Lower and East Hilltop Zones. Drilling in 2023 was focused on resource delineation and to acquire additional samples for metallurgical purposes.  

Hilltop Exploration – At the end of the 2023 drill program, and following the receipt of approvals for drilling within the Hilltop Corridor, one RC exploration hole was drilled to test for potential mineralization along the intrusive contact. This hole (iRH23-55) successfully intersected 60 metres of skarn mineralization including 4 narrow high-grade intercepts. This is the only hole drilled south of Hilltop within the Hilltop Corridor and is the first where extremely high-grade silver is associated with skarn mineralization. No other holes have tested this contact horizon other than at Blackjack and East Hilltop.

Blackjack Zone – Previously released results from the Blackjack deposit also intersected appreciable poly-metallic mineralization with highlight intercepts of 19.4% Zn, 19.2 g/t Ag and 0.4 g/t Au over 30.4 m in iRH23-18A, 10.7% Zn & 37.0 g/t Ag over 47.9 m & 15.6% Zn, 8.7% Pb, 420.4 g/t Ag & 0.6 g/t Au over 40.4 m in iRH23-41, and 10.1 % Zn, 0.6% Pb, 37.0 g/t Ag & 0.3 g/t Au over 116.3 m in iRH23-42.  Hole iRH23-18A is the southmost intercepts drilling in the Blackjack deposit that remains open along strike to the north and south.

FAD Zone – Drilling was also completed at the FAD deposit as part of the program to advance resource estimates for the poly-metallic deposits at Ruby Hill. This program confirmed impressive massive sulphide mineralization with the final step-out hole of the program (PC23-28) demonstrating that the deposit remains open for expansion. This drill program builds on Paycore’s successful program, further defining and expanding gold-rich poly-metallic mineralization at FAD. Previously released results from Paycore’s drill program included 8.0 g/t Au, 79.0 g/t Ag, 10.0% Zn & 1.0% Pb over 27.4 m in hole (PC22-10), 7.1 g/t Au, 376.0 g/t Ag, 6.3% Zn & 10.3% Pb over 14.8 m in hole (PC22-08A) and 1.1 g/t Au, 155.0 g/t Ag, 22.0% Zn & 1.5% Pb over 12.5 m in hole (PC22-07).

The FAD deposit is located approximately 2 km to the south of the Archimedes pit and the mineralization being defined at Ruby Hill. To-date, FAD is the largest of the known CRD zones that are being drilled on the Property and remains open for expansion. Results from the 2023 drill program will be released soon.

The CRD deposits being drilled at Ruby Hill and FAD are situated within the Hilltop Corridor, a 1.5 km long, alluvial covered, trend immediately south of the Archimedes pit that is largely untested by previous drilling owing to the alluvial cover.

Previous geophysical surveys (MT, gravity and magnetic) have identified several highly perspective anomalies that are believed to have the potential to represent additional massive sulfide targets including the Spring Valley and Deep Blue anomalies. Several of these surveys contained sparse data south of the Archimedes pit. Recently, surveys have been extended to cover to the southern boundary of the newly acquired FAD Property, including the largely untested Hilltop Corridor.