Black Pine has moved past the question of whether the numbers work and into the question of how you build it. Liberty Gold announced October 27 that detailed engineering is under way at its 100%-owned Black Pine oxide gold project in southeastern Idaho, and that it has already placed orders for the equipment packages that take the longest to make.
- The engineers: M3 Engineering & Technology and NewFields retained as principal EPCM partners — the same firms that carried the project through its pre-feasibility and the feasibility study completed in September 2026.
- Progress so far: M3's infrastructure and processing engineering is about 5% complete; NewFields has the heap-leach facility design about 15% complete. Detailed engineering is targeted for completion in Q3 2027, with construction targeted to commence in H1 2028, subject to permits and a formal construction decision.
- Long-lead orders placed: full fabrication of the project's electrical transformers with Nexus Power of Salt Lake City, Utah, and the ADR gold-recovery plant and refinery packages with CGS Associates of Sandy, Utah — principal fabrication sites in Idaho and Utah.
- The team build: recent senior hires include a General Manager for Black Pine, with recruitment under way across safety, maintenance, mining and construction roles, targeting a combined project and operations workforce of more than 60 employees by the end of 2027.
- Permitting track: the project continues under the U.S. federal FAST-41 framework.
Why ordering transformers is the story
In a mine build, the schedule is set by the slowest factory, not the fastest shovel. Power transformers and gold-recovery plants are classic long-lead items: miss a fabrication slot and a project can idle for months. By contracting both packages now — after competitive bidding, the company says — Liberty takes them off the construction critical path and feeds real vendor specifications into the detailed design instead of placeholders. The mining fleet is next: bids are in and under evaluation with support from three independent consultants.
There is also a regional shape to the spend. The two named fabricators sit in Sandy and Salt Lake City, Utah, with fabrication sites in Idaho and Utah — the engineering phase of an Idaho mine is already writing purchase orders into the Intermountain West supply chain, a year and more before any construction decision.
The honesty box
This release announces engineering progress and equipment orders — not a construction decision, and not a permit. Construction in H1 2028 is a target the company states, expressly subject to permitting approvals and a formal construction decision that has not been announced. The percentage-complete figures (5% and 15%) are the company's own measures of design scope, and the 60-plus workforce is a target for the end of 2027, not current employment. The feasibility study figures behind the project come from the September 2026 study; this release adds no new economics, resource or reserve numbers, and equipment orders placed ahead of a construction decision are capital committed at the company's risk if permits or financing do not land on schedule.
What to watch
The Q3 2027 detailed-engineering finish line, the FAST-41 permitting milestones, the mining-fleet award, and the formal construction decision itself.