Quarterly reports rarely carry a first. This one does: buried in i-80 Gold's November 2 results for the quarter ended September 30 is the first reserve statement in the company's Nevada hub-and-spoke build-out — and a second underground mine weeks from first mining.
- Maiden reserves at Granite Creek underground: 2.20 million tonnes grading 7.87 g/t gold, containing 556,500 ounces, declared in the September 2026 feasibility study and reported with the Q3 results.
- Resources grew into the reserve: Measured and Indicated underground resources rose 229% to 3.73 million tonnes grading 7.17 g/t for 859,500 ounces versus the 2025 preliminary economic assessment; Inferred resources fell 38% to 0.89 million tonnes grading 7.06 g/t for 202,800 ounces as infill drilling converted material upward.
- Q3 operations: gold production of 11,685 ounces (12,428 a year earlier); 7,744 ounces sold at an average realized price of $4,211 per ounce for revenue of $32.7 million; gross profit rose to $5.0 million from $3.1 million.
- Archimedes underground: on schedule and largely on budget — main decline on track, second ventilation and escape raise under construction, surface and underground infrastructure due for completion in early November, ahead of planned production mining by year-end.
- Lone Tree Plant: refurbishment on schedule and largely on budget — bulk demolition complete, construction mobilization under way, about 44% of project capital committed and about 20% of contingency drawn.
- The balance sheet behind the build: cash and equivalents of $411.4 million at September 30, against a Q3 net loss of $48.4 million (wider than the $41.9 million loss a year earlier) driven by higher pre-development, evaluation and exploration spending.
- Drilling: about 36,000 metres in Q3, roughly 62,000 metres for the nine months — technical drilling at Mineral Point, infill at Archimedes, and definition drilling at Granite Creek beyond the feasibility-study area.
What the reserve changes
A reserve is the part of a resource that a feasibility study says can be mined at a profit — the line between a geological inventory and a mine plan. Granite Creek underground has been producing on a ramp-up basis while its study caught up; the September feasibility study now gives it a compliant reserve base, and the company says qualifying development spending at Granite Creek will be capitalized from here rather than expensed. Underground development in the quarter continued to open up high-grade headings, and the project is expected to land within its full-year production guidance range.
Archimedes, at the Ruby Hill property near Eureka, is the second leg. Its first gold is listed among the company's Q4 2026 catalysts, with a feasibility study of its own due in the second half of 2027. The third leg is processing: the Lone Tree Plant — one of only two autoclave facilities in Nevada, the other owned by Nevada Gold Mines — is being refurbished as the central hub for refractory material from all of i-80's underground projects, with commissioning expected in Q4 2027 and a first gold pour the same quarter. Under the processing strategy updated October 14, a large share of 2027 refractory production from Granite Creek and Archimedes will be stockpiled for Lone Tree rather than treated by a third party.
The longer queue
On October 14 the company re-sequenced what comes after the hub: Mineral Point open pit is now the prioritized next major development project, ahead of the Granite Creek open pit, with the Cove underground sequenced later as replacement refractory feed. Mineral Point's drilling and technical work is advancing toward a pre-feasibility study due in H2 2027. The stated platform targets are 150,000 to 200,000 ounces a year beginning in 2028 from the two underground mines through Lone Tree, with Mineral Point aimed at 400,000 to 500,000 gold-equivalent ounces a year in the early 2030s.
The honesty box
The reserve and resource figures are the company's, from the September 2026 Granite Creek feasibility study as summarized in this release — the reserve is a study outcome, not metal in hand, and it is reported here as declared. The 150,000–200,000-ounce and 400,000–500,000-ounce figures are forward-looking company targets, not guidance for any current period; the company's actual 2026 production is now expected in the lower half of its guidance range, partly because Archimedes oxide material will be leached on site rather than sold, pushing its recorded production from Q4 2026 into Q1 2027. The quarter also cost more than it made: the $48.4 million net loss and $32.5 million of cash used in operations are the other side of building three projects at once, funded from the $411.4 million cash balance and the additional, partly conditional liquidity the release describes.
What to watch
First gold mined at Archimedes in Q4; the start of Lone Tree construction in Q4; the Cove underground feasibility study, also listed for Q4 2026; and whether Granite Creek's ramp holds its full-year guidance range now that it carries a reserve.