DENVER, Sept. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hycroft Mining
Holding Corporation (Nasdaq: HYMC) ("Hycroft" or the "Company"), is
pleased to report on recent drill results from its wholly owned
Hycroft Mine, a gold and silver producing operation located in the
prolific mining region of Northern
Nevada.
As previously announced, a planned drill program commenced at
Hycroft in March 2021 to obtain
representative mineralized material across the deposit for
metallurgical and mineralogical testing. The program consists of
approximately 21,300 meters of drilling, including 13 exploration
holes planned to fill in areas of less dense drilling and
investigate potential higher grade and oxide targets identified by
the exploration team. The program is being performed by
National EWP, Inc. and First Drilling, LLC utilizing three drill
rigs: a reverse circulation rig for pre-collar[1] drilling; and two
core rigs for drilling the targeted zones for metallurgical
samples.
Recent exploration drilling in the Vortex Zone has encountered
significant intercepts including 51.8 meters (170 feet) grading
2.47 grams per tonne ("g/t") (0.072 ounces per ton ("opt")) gold
and 25.5 g/t (0.744 opt) silver (H21R-5592) and an additional
intercept of 30.5 meters (100 feet) grading 0.71 g/t (0.021 opt)
gold and 17.5 g/t (0.528 opt) silver in drill hole H21R-5591 (see
Table 1 below for additional information). This drilling has
identified gold grades that are five times higher than the average
mineral reserve grades at Hycroft of 0.34 g/t (0.011 opt). In
addition, pre-collar drilling of the metallurgical holes has
identified oxide material in various areas of the ore body which
could enhance the run-of-mine ("ROM") plan. The results of
drilling and metallurgical work from this drill campaign will be
included in our next mineral resource update and planned
feasibility study, expected by the end of the first quarter
2022.
Diane R. Garrett, President
& Chief Executive Officer, said,
"These are some of the highest gold grades that we have encountered
at Hycroft. Our exploration team has identified several
target areas of potential higher gold equivalent grades within and
near our existing mineral resource as demonstrated by these results
as well as from prior drill campaigns. As we build our long-term
operational strategy identifying these higher-grade gold equivalent
zones is important information for our mine planning to continue to
enhance the value of this substantial mineral endowment. We look
forward to reporting future exploration results and sharing our
development plans as they come together in the first half of
2022."
The currently defined Hycroft mineral resource spans an area of
approximately 3 miles long (north to south) and 1.5 miles wide
(east to west) within a land package of approximately 12 miles long
by 8 miles wide. This drill campaign is designed to be a
multi-purpose program where, in some cases, certain areas where
less dense drilling had been conducted in previous campaigns were
targeted to not only obtain representative samples for testing, but
to also potentially improve the mineral classification for those
blocks. There has been no exploration drilling at Hycroft
since 2013. Part of our review work has identified numerous
opportunities for expansion including historical high-grade
intercepts that were not followed up on given the focus at the time
was around near surface oxide heap leach material. Our 2021
geometallurgical drill program will also include some exploration
drilling to follow up on high priority target areas. The Vortex
Zone, discovered in 2008 and drilled from 2008 to 2012, represents
a significant portion of the sulfide mineral reserve and mineral
resource and has yielded high-grade silver in past drilling (see
Table 2 below for historical drill results). Understanding the
mineralogical properties of Vortex was identified early on as a
critical component to developing the long-term mine plan.
Table 1: 2021 Drilling Program – Selected Intercepts
Hole
ID
|
FROM
|
TO
|
INTERVAL
|
GRADE
|
(meters)
|
(meters)
|
(meters)
|
Au
(g/t)
|
Ag
(g/t)
|
Au
(opt)
|
Ag
(opt)
|
H21R-5591
|
365.8
|
396.2
|
30.5
|
0.71
|
17.54
|
0.021
|
0.528
|
H21R-5591
|
408.4
|
435.9
|
27.4
|
0.63
|
18.11
|
0.018
|
0.528
|
H21R-5591
|
443.5
|
455.7
|
12.2
|
0.59
|
28.94
|
0.017
|
0.844
|
H21R-5592
|
192
|
198.1
|
6.1
|
0.58
|
4.68
|
0.017
|
0.136
|
H21R-5592
|
320
|
371.9
|
51.8
|
2.47
|
25.50
|
0.072
|
0.744
|
H21R-5592
|
414.5
|
429.8
|
15.2
|
1.07
|
7.61
|
0.033
|
0.222
|
H12R-5593
|
335.3
|
382.5
|
47.2
|
0.54
|
18.53
|
0.016
|
0.541
|
Full results can be found on our website at
www.hycroftmining.com.
Table 2: Historical Vortex Drill Results
Hole
ID
|
FROM
|
TO
|
INTERVAL
|
GRADE
|
(meters)
|
(meters)
|
(meters)
|
Au
(g/t)
|
Ag
(g/t)
|
Au
(opt)
|
Ag
(opt)
|
HD08-3632
|
400
|
445
|
45
|
0.28
|
822.00
|
0.009
|
26.304
|
|
460
|
465
|
5
|
0.13
|
1,120.00
|
0.004
|
35.84
|
|
475
|
480
|
5
|
0.46
|
1,355.00
|
0.015
|
43.36
|
H09D-3768
|
1020
|
1035
|
16
|
0.34
|
2,285.00
|
0.011
|
73.12
|
including
|
1031
|
1035
|
4
|
0.88
|
6,535.22
|
0.028
|
209.127
|
H10D-3382
|
554
|
2051
|
1496
|
0.75
|
47.00
|
0.024
|
1.504
|
including
|
1490
|
1719
|
230
|
1.47
|
182.00
|
0.047
|
5.824
|
H10R-3288
|
1234
|
2070
|
837
|
0.70
|
93.00
|
0.022
|
2.976
|
including
|
1631
|
1706
|
75
|
0.75
|
543.00
|
0.024
|
17.376
|
H10D-3286
|
515
|
1096
|
581
|
0.66
|
51.22
|
0.021
|
1.639
|
including
|
597
|
604
|
7
|
0.40
|
472.00
|
0.013
|
15.104
|
H10R-3833/3353
|
1273
|
1375
|
102
|
0.25
|
249.62
|
0.008
|
7.988
|
including
|
1335
|
1355
|
20
|
0.30
|
756.28
|
0.01
|
24.201
|
H10D-3843
|
1424
|
1545
|
121
|
0.83
|
162.79
|
0.027
|
5.209
|
including
|
1463
|
1490
|
26
|
1.28
|
321.39
|
0.041
|
10.284
|
including
|
1522
|
1545
|
23
|
0.91
|
244.95
|
0.029
|
7.838
|
All 2021 drilling and sampling has been conducted under the
supervision of Mr. James Berry, Vice
President Exploration & Geology for Hycroft, who is a Qualified
Person as defined under the United States Securities and Exchange
Commission's Modernization Rules under subpart 1300 and item 601
(96)(B)(iii) of Regulation S-K. He has reviewed and approved the
contents of this press release.
About Hycroft Mining Holding
Corporation
Hycroft is a US-based, gold and silver
producer operating the Hycroft Mine located in the world-class
mining region of Northern Nevada.
The Hycroft Mine ranks among the top 20 largest primary gold
deposits in the world and is the second largest in the United States.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the
meaning of Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933,
as amended, Section 21E of the Unites States Securities Exchange
Act of 1934, as amended, or the Unites States Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than
statements of historical facts, included herein and public
statements by our officers or representatives, that address
activities, events or developments that our management expects or
anticipates will or may occur in the future, are forward-looking
statements, including but not limited to such things as future
business strategy, plans and goals, competitive strengths and
expansion and growth of our business. The words "estimate", "plan",
"anticipate", "expect", "intend", "believe" "target", "budget",
"may", "can", "will", "would", "could", "should", "seeks", or
"scheduled to" and similar words or expressions, or negatives of
these terms or other variations of these terms or comparable
language or any discussion of strategy or intention identify
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address
activities, events or developments that the Company expects or
anticipates will or may occur in the future and are based on
current expectations and assumptions. These risks may include the
following and the occurrence of one or more of the events or
circumstances alone or in combination with other events or
circumstances, may have a material adverse effect on the Company's
business, cash flows, financial condition and results of
operations. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited
to: industry related risks including: fluctuations in the price of
gold and silver; uncertainties concerning estimates of mineral
reserves and mineral resources; ; the results of the Company's
expanded drilling program and the timing and results of a mineral
resource update and planned feasibility study; uncertainties
relating to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; the intense competition
within the mining industry; the inherently hazardous nature of
mining activities, including environmental risks; our
insurance may not be adequate to cover all risks associated with
our business, or cover the replacement costs of our assets;
potential effects on our operations of U.S. federal and state
governmental regulations, including environmental regulation and
permitting requirements; cost of compliance with current and future
government regulations; uncertainties relating to obtaining or
retaining approvals and permits from governmental regulatory
authorities; potential challenges to title in our mineral
properties; risks associated with proposed legislation in
Nevada that could significantly
increase the costs or taxation of our operations; and changes to
the climate and regulations and pending legislation regarding
climate change; business-related risks including: risks related to
our liquidity and going concern considerations; risks related to
our ability to raise capital on favorable terms or at all; risks
related to proprietary two-stage heap oxidation and leach process
at the Hycroft Mine and estimates of production; our ability to
achieve our estimated production and sales rates and stay within
our estimated operating and production costs and capital
expenditure projections; risks related to a decline in our
production of gold and silver; risk related to our ability to
successfully eliminate or meaningfully reduce processing and mining
constraints and related the results of our planned 2021 technical
efforts and how the data resulting from such efforts could
adversely impact processing technologies applied to our ore, future
operations and profitability; risks related to our reliance on one
mine with a new process; risks related to our limited experience
with a largely untested process of oxidizing and heap leaching
sulfide ores; uncertainties and risks related to our reliance on
contractors and consultants; risks related to the availability and
cost of equipment, supplies, energy, or commodities; the commercial
success of, and risks relating to, our development activities;
risks related to slope stability; risks related to our
substantial indebtedness, including cross acceleration and our
ability to generate sufficient cash to service our indebtedness;
uncertainties related to our ability to replace and expand our ore
reserves; costs related to our land reclamation requirements;
uncertainties resulting from the possible incurrence of operating
and net losses in the future; the loss of key personnel or our
failure to attract and retain personnel; risks related to
technology systems and security breaches; any failure to remediate
and possible litigation as a result of a material weakness in our
internal controls over financial reporting; risks related to
current and future legal proceedings; and risks that our principal
stockholders will be able to exert significant influence over
matters submitted to stockholders for approval; risks related to
our securities, including: volatility in the price of our common
stock and warrants; risks that our warrants may expire
worthless; the valuation of our private warrants could
increase the volatility in our net income (loss); anti–takeover
provisions could make a third party acquisition of us difficult;
and risks related to limited access to our financial information,
as we have elected to take advantage of the disclosure requirement
exemptions granted to emerging growth companies and smaller
reporting companies; and forward looking statements that we do not
intend to pay cash dividends and depending upon results of testing
and analysis, we may determine to conduct mining operations using a
multi-process hybrid approach and update and amend the Hycroft
Technical Report. These statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which may cause our
actual results, performance or achievements to be materially
different from any results, performance or achievements expressed
or implied by such forward-looking statements. Please
see our "Risk Factors" set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the year ended December 31, 2020,
as amended May 14, 2021, for more
information about these and other risks. You are cautioned
against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.
Although we have attempted to identify important factors that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those described in
forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause
results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Although
these forward-looking statements were based on assumptions that the
Company believes are reasonable when made, you are cautioned that
forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance
and that actual results, performance or achievements may differ
materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking
statements contained in this news release. In addition, even if our
results, performance, or achievements are consistent with the
forward-looking statements contained in this news release, those
results, performance or achievements may not be indicative of
results, performance or achievements in subsequent periods. Given
these risks and uncertainties, you are cautioned not to place undue
reliance on these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking
statements made in this news release speak only as of the date of
those statements, and we undertake no obligation to update those
statements or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to
any of those statements to reflect future events or
developments.
1 A pre-collar is the top end of a drill hole that is
established using a reverse circulation drill above the target zone
in order to reduce the overall drill costs.
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