Don't believe the bull shite...links and information is all current, unlike some who constantly post fake photos and false prophecies. No permits for roasting. No mining fleet, no process plant...years and years away.
Technical studies Talking about the 2021 decision to discontinue mining, Garrett said that since the beginning of operations Hycroft was processing oxide ore on leach pads, but the mine was running out of oxide ore in 2021 and it was time to transition to sulfide ore, but the studies of how to process the mine’s sulfide ore had not been completed yet.
“Unfortunately, the work had not been done for the sulfide milling operation,” Garrett said. “In mining, you typically complete your oxide heap leach material and transition directly into your sulfide milling material. You don’t have a cease of operations in between. But because this company sat private for several years and because we came in three years ago realizing that this work was not completed, unfortunately the operation shut down because it was losing millions per year and that wasn’t good for our shareholders.”
“We are designing the flow sheet now, and we will button up those technical studies this year,” Garrett said.
She said they are looking at several options for processing the sulfide ore, including pressure oxidation and autoclaving, and also roasting.
Roasting could be an attractive option, Garrett said, because it produces a significant amount of sulfuric acid, and there are currently several lithium mines being developed in Nevada which will need sulfuric acid to process their lithium ore.
“So we think there are some added green benefits along with some additional benefits for going with roasting, but we’re doing those trade off studies right now.”
Garrett said there might be opportunities for using an idle roaster in Nevada.
“It would be ideal if we could ship our ore to an existing roaster on somebody else’s property versus building our own. But those are the alternatives analyses that we are doing right now as part of the technical studies.”
Going underground Along with doing technical studies on how to process the sulfide ore, exploration is continuing to gain a better understanding of the site and the newly discovered high-grade underground deposit in order to decide on the best route to take when mining resumes. Hycroft is a large open pit mine, and one option would be to continue to grow the open pit and process the low-grade ore as they work their way down to the high-grade ore. Another option, which Garrett said probably makes more sense, would be to develop an underground mine for the first time at Hycroft in order to quickly get to the high-grade ore.
Garrett said they need to see how big the underground high-grade resource is and which direction it’s going, and then they can build their mine plan.
If they do start out continuing to mine the lower-grade ore from the open pit, then they would build a large mill, which might process around 60,000 tons of ore a day. If they start out with going underground to the high-grade ore, then they could build a smaller mill, which might process around 3,000 tons a day. That mill would take less time to build, which would allow them to get back into operation more quickly. That would bring in cash flow, and later on they could expand the mill for when they go back to mining the lower-grade ore closer to the surface.
Once the mining and technical decisions are made, it will take time to build the custom-designed mill for the mine.
“Right now the lead times for getting in some of this equipment are a year and a half,” Garrett said. “So the time to get those in, and then a year and a half of construction, you’re easily looking somewhere between the three and five-year time frame, depending on whether you go with a smaller, higher grade underground mine, or whether you go with the large open pit first.
“In any case, the plan is to mine all of it, and have a very long mine life.”
In a new fireside chat, @DianeG_CEO discusses her 25-year career in the resources sector and the moment it all “clicked,” leading to her current role at Hycroft Mining. Watch the full video here: https://t.co/TwyRgySUPl. $HYMC#InvestInMining
