Central Nevada Gold on mine hunt: CEO 

Privately held developer Central Nevada Gold will look at acquiring other precious metals assets in the state after buying the past-producing Mule Canyon mine from Newmont (NYSE, ASX: NEM; TSX: NGT) earlier this summer, CEO Simon Griffiths said. 

Having closed the $20-million (C$28-million) Mule Canyon acquisition in late June, Central Nevada is now working to advance the asset through prefeasibility and permitting in next year’s second half with the goal of delivering a construction decision in 2028.  

It expects to announce a new mineral resource estimate for the property in the coming months. An initial public offering is also in the works, possibly as early as the first half of 2027, Griffiths said. 

“Our priority is Mule Canyon, and that will attract 110% of our attention in the short term, but given the balance sheet, the pedigree of the project we have in our stable already and the shareholder base, we will most certainly be looking and keeping an eye out for other opportunities in Nevada,” Griffiths said in an interview.  

Discovered in 1986 by Gold Fields (JSE, NYSE: GFI), Mule Canyon was brought into production by Newmont in 1996, churning out about 500,000 oz. of the yellow metal over five years. Mining ended in 2000 due to low gold prices after only two of six zones had been mined and fewer than half of the pre-mining reserves had been extracted, leaving significant unexploited potential. 

Non-core mines 

Major gold producers such as Newmont and Barrick Mining (TSX: ABX; NYSE: B) have been selling smaller or non-core mines to take advantage of elevated commodities prices and raise cash that can be ploughed back into to massive, low-cost assets in tier-one jurisdictions. That’s a trend Central Nevada Gold is keen to capitalize on, Griffiths said. 

“As larger companies such as Newmont and Barrick go through their restructuring and rationalize their portfolios, most definitely they could be looking to include us on their contact list,” the CEO said. “We have a very strong relationship with Newmont. We’ve demonstrated our ability to close on this transaction.” 

Griffiths’ past as a former CEO of silver producer Andean Precious Metals (TSX: APM) means he will also canvass Nevada for silver-rich properties. Another member of Central Nevada’s management team, executive director Fraser Buchan, also held senior leadership roles at Andean. 

“Gold dominates the resource at Mule Canyon, but we do have some silver there. And Fraser and I both did [Andean’s] San Bartolomé [mine in Bolivia], so silver is also of interest,” Griffiths said. “The opportunities are there.” 

Future IPO 

Central Nevada’s purchase price for Mule Canyon included a $10-million cash payment at closing. A second cash payment will be made next June or when Central Nevada goes public – whichever occurs first. 

An IPO will probably happen “early next year” after more drilling has been completed, Griffiths said. 

“Our first priority is metallurgical sampling,” he said. “That would be the first 20 holes. Those holes will also inform our geological resource model. The second priority will be infill drilling to confirm older [reverse circulation] holes and to upgrade the classification from inferred to indicated or measured, as the case may be. We would like to maximize the upgrade from inferred during this drill program. 

“We’d like to understand what the project looks like before we do the public listing,” he said. 

Prolific areas 

Located about 700 km northwest of Las Vegas, Mule Canyon sits in the Shoshone Mountain Range’s historic Argenta mining district, near the prolific Carlin, Battle Mountain and Getchell trends.  

A discovery drill intercept returned 41.1 meters grading 24.8 grams gold per tonne from an undisclosed depth, Central Nevada says. The company’s database comprises 2,149 drill holes covering more than 335,000 metres. 

Historical operating data cited by Central Nevada Gold indicate an average head grade of 3.8 grams gold per tonne and metallurgical recoveries of roughly 94%. 

Subsequent exploration outlined six mineralized zones over 2.5 km, defining 8.2 million tonnes of open-pittable ore at an average grade of 3.81 grams gold per tonne, Central Nevada shareholder Giant Venture Capital says on its website. 

Big data

Mule Canyon was initially designed and permitted to process about 7 to 10 million tons (6.4 to 9.1 million tonnes) of gold-bearing ore by processing 4.1 million tons of low-grade oxide ore by cyanide heap leaching, according to Nevada’s Division of Environmental Protection. 

“We bought this asset from the biggest gold mining company in the world. We’ve inherited a huge amount of data, which is a massive advantage to us,” Griffiths said. 

“We’re not looking for an ore body; we’ve already got one. We want to make sure we get through this huge data set and then identify as much information as we can, so that when we do come to the market, our story is more fulsome and we have de-risked many of the unknowns.”