i-80 GOLD CORP has officially completed the first phase in its recapitalization plan, a phase where it markedly entered into agreements to defer the December 2024 Gold Prepay and January 2025 Silver Purchase Agreement deliveries until March 31, 2025. This it did as a part of an amendment across its agreements with Orion Mine Finance.
Talk about the same on a slightly deeper level, we begin from how the company completed gold prepay delivery by December 31st, 2024, while simultaneously deferring the Silver Purchase Agreement delivery, scheduled for January 15, 2025, to March 31st, 2025.
Next up, we must dig into how the recapitalization plan in question is now well underway. At present, assuming all the crucial factors remain unchanged, it is targeting completion on or somewhere near March 31st, 2025. Then, there is a plan formulated by i-80 to release updated Preliminary Economic Assessments (“PEAs”) for all five gold projects in the portfolio during first quarter of 2025.
Not just that, the company is also actively planning to release an updated technical report for Lone Tree which will update the current mineral resource estimate. Beyond that, a class III engineering study detailing the capital budget for refurbishment of the autoclave at Lone Tree is expected in the third quarter of 2025.
“Over the course of the fourth quarter of 2024, our two priorities have been to establish the new development plan to develop the portfolio of high-grade gold projects in Nevada and restructure the Company’s balance sheet to allow for the execution of the new development plan. We are very pleased with Orion’s cooperation and support in the deferral of the upcoming gold and silver commitments to allow us to advance our recapitalization plan and enable us to develop i-80 Gold into a mid-tier gold producer,” said Richard Young, Chief Executive Officer of i-80 Gold.
Moving on, it must be mentioned that i-80’s priority has been to defer the upcoming gold and silver deliveries including 3,210 ounces of gold and 400,000 ounces of silver, scheduled for delivery on December 31, 2024, and January 15, 2025, respectively. Apart from agreeing to reset the deadline to March 31, 2025, subject to i-80 Gold’s compliance with the Waiver Agreement, Orion has also agreed to extend the expiry date of its convertible credit agreement, dated December 13, 2021, by six months from December 31, 2025 to June 30, 2026.
In respect to these extensions, i-80 Gold is set to issue to Orion five million common share purchase warrants priced at a 25% premium to i-80 Gold’s five day volume weighted average share price as of the date the Orion Convertible Loan is amended and restated i-80 Gold and Orion have also agreed to enter into an offtake agreement by the end of January. The stated offtake agreement will likely have similar terms to the existing agreement and commence once the former’s current offtake agreement with Deterra Royalties Limited expires at the end of December 2028.
We referred to how i-80’s recapitalization plan is well underway, but what we haven’t mentioned yet is that the company is currently working with current partners, as well as potential new debt and equity providers, to restructure the existing debt and provide sufficient capital for developing the company’s portfolio of assets.
Staying on i-80’s portfolio of assets, i-80 happens to be the largest resource holder in Nevada. Furthermore, it has one of only five refractory processing facilities in the United States, with a fully permitted autoclave located at the Lone Tree Complex.
Among other things, we ought to mention that the company plans to have a catalyst-rich 2025, with the anticipated announcement of PEAs on all five of its most advanced gold projects, However, for the first-quarter, i-80 will release PEAs on three projects i.e. Granite Creek (underground and open pit combined), Ruby Hill Complex (Archimedes underground and Mineral Point open pit combined), and McCoy-Cove underground project.
