Allied Nevada Gold Corp. of Reno took a big step last week in its effort to restart operation of the Hycroft Mine near Winnemucca.
The publicly held mining company said it began loading ore onto existing leach pads where chemicals begin to separate gold from ore and expects to begin producing gold by the fourth quarter of this year.
The company also has started work on a $1.3 million refinery as well as expansion of leach pads, work that's budgeted at $2.8 million.
Summit Valley Engineering of Salt Lake City won the refinery contract while the leach-pad expansion is under the supervision of SRK Consulting in Reno.
The Hycroft Mine is 54 miles west of Winnemucca in Humboldt County. Operations at the property were suspended about 10 years ago when metals prices fell, and it's been idle ever since.
Allied Nevada said last week it budgeted $33.5 million for equipment and construction to get the mine back into production. The biggest piece some $24.8 million reflects the cost of purchasing and
rebuilding a used fleet of mining equipment.
The company is actively recruiting professional and production staff for the mine.
Total cost of the reopening including working capital and early operating expenses has been estimated at $56 million.
Mike Doyle, vice president of the company, said Allied Nevada expects to achieve full production capacity at the mine next year. The company projects that the property will produce about 375,000 ounces of gold $340 million worth at recent prices during five years.
In its 10-year operating history from 1987 to 1998, the mine produced about 1 million ounces of gold.
Allied Nevada raised $64.6 million through a public stock offering in April to finance the work at Hycroft Mine.
The stock was trading at about $6.40 a share last week.
