i-80 Gold Corporation (NYSE:IAUX) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call March 13, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Ewan Downie - Chief Executive Officer

Ryan Snow - Chief Financial Officer

Matt Gili - President & Chief Operating Officer

Conference Call Participants

Justin Chan - SCP Finance

Operator

Good morning. My name is Ludi [ph] and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the i-80 Gold Corp. Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Financial and Operating Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

Mr. Downie, you may begin your conference.

Ewan Downie

Hi and thank you for attending today's Q4 and year-end 2023 financial and operating results presentation. We -- on the second slide of the presentation, the people who are attending on behalf of the company are: myself, the CEO; Matt Gili, the President and Chief Operating Officer; Ryan Snow, our CFO; and Matt Gollat, Executive Vice President. At the end of the presentation, we will take a few questions. We've got another commitment shortly after it ends, so we will only be taking 2 or 3 but as always, people can contact the company if they have any further questions.

Slide 3 is our standard disclaimer statement. I urge everybody to read it prior to or in conjunction with this presentation today.

On Slide 4, 2023, despite the challenging market conditions was a year that we realized numerous achievements. The Ruby Hill property was consolidated through the acquisition of Paycore that secured 100% of the high-grade FAD deposit. That is expected to be one of the highest grade polymetallic deposits, if not the highest grade polymetallic deposit in our portfolio once we bring it to 43-101 resource.

We completed more than 60,000 meters of drilling to increase the quality of our mineral resources and also to expand mineralization and we realize significant success in those exploration and expansion programs. We also completed nearly 4,000 meters of underground development as we continued to do the test mining program at Granite Creek and we also secured a long-term dewatering strategy that included the installation of a new deeper well to enhance our dewatering capabilities there. That will allow us to progress to develop the South Pacific zone that is expected to become the primary deposit in that -- at that project.

We also were able to secure in the difficult market, sufficient capital to advance our strategy to become the second largest producer in the State of Nevada. The realization of a joint venture, we announced during the year, our intention to bring in a partner to assist in the advancement of the Ruby Hill project. That was done partially to assist with our financing capabilities and also a partner who can assist when it comes to polymetallic mineralization. That partnership agreements are actively being advanced and we expect those to -- that partnership to be announced during the second quarter of this year.