With considerable "network" support from renowned mining investors and an imminent public listing, Borealis Mining aims to be the next mid-tier gold producer in Nevada, US. Its Borealis project is at the northwest end of the Walker Lane Trend, two hours south of Reno.

Rob McEwen, Eric Sprott, Earthlabs, and Equinox Partners are some of the investors looking for success in a forgotten corner of the state.

McEwen is a 19.9% owner of Borealis, having bought a block of shares from private equity fund Waterton Global Resource Management as it continues to liquidate its portfolio of Nevada gold properties. Waterton sold the Goldfield project south of Tonopah to Centerra for US$206 million in February 2022. McEwen was an early investor in Paycore Minerals, led by his former investor relations person, Christina McCarthy. McCarthy, a director of Borealis, sold Paycore to I-80 Gold in February 2023, obtaining a 36% premium.

About one-third of the shares are locked up for three years, which means the initial public float may be quite modest.

"Our investors are long-term investors so it could be that there are only about 5 million shares freely trading," chief executive Kelly Malcolm told Mining Journal.

In addition to McCarthy and Malcolm, the Borealis board includes Kinross Gold founder Robert Buchan.

Borealis project

Borealis was discovered in 1978 and mined for 10 years during the 1980s, producing 625,000oz at a grade of 1.77gpt, before being fully reclaimed by 1993. Later, Gryphon Gold decided to reopen the mine and obtained all the necessary permits, but its plans went awry when its boiler and crusher broke.

It took debt from Waterton as it sought a fix but went bankrupt. Waterton and a shareholder were then embroiled for 10 years in litigation, during which Waterton prevailed. By then, it wanted to offload the asset.

Malcolm obtained it for US$5.1 million, most of which was settled by McEwen picking up Waterton's block of shares. Borealis paid just $100,000 in cash.

The company has a fully permitted mine site and an ADR (adsorption, desorption, and refining) plant. The leach pads have a capacity of 4.2Mt and are permitted to expand. Borealis made its first pour in June, and the leach pads still produce gold from residual leaching. It also has inventory in the ADR plant columns, material on the leach pad that has yet to be irrigated, and ore stockpiles that are ready to be processed.

Chief executive Kelly Malcolm expects a strong start for the company and rapid advancement once listed. 

"We have a two-year plan to expand the resource, optimise the metallurgy and prepare the permit for expansion targeting 100,000ozpa of production," Malcolm said.

The company completed its first gold from the ADR facility in late August by stripping some of the 10 carbon columns, which were loaded from residual leaching.

"We are very pleased to announce our first gold pour, which will now increase in frequency as we strip our remaining carbon columns and start to put fresh cyanide on our leach pad. We are also in the process of seeking contractors to crush our ~330,000t stockpile of ore," Malcolm said.

The Borealis project has a historical 2011 measured and indicated resource of 1.9Moz grading 1.25gpt with another 407,000oz in inferred resources. It is an oxide system trending northeast, and with gold identified in surface grab samples on a series of sub-parallel faults, company geologists see the potential to host more gold-bearing structures. The area is geologically relatively young at about 5 million years. 

"This means it is essentially as emplaced, and there is no post-mineralisation folding and faulting. It also means the feeders are present," Malcolm explained.

The project has not seen drilling since 2012 and has seen no regional exploration since 2008. High-grade historical drilling intercepts include 67m grading 16.1gpt and 24m grading 10.7gpt. The company has a 3500m drilling program underway, with assays to be released once listed.

Borealis also has high-grade sulphides in the Graben deposit just south of the historical Freedom Flats pit. While the company does not have a mill to process these, a 350tpd permitted mill is close by at Hecla Mining's Aurora mine.

"There may be potential to do a deal to purchase or use their mill to obtain a flotation concentrate to ship to a roaster," Malcolm said.

Growth

Early cash flow and strong backers at a time when many junior gold companies are struggling means Malcolm has a mandate and firepower to grow by acquisition and take advantage of some of the other gold oxide opportunities in Borealis' corner of Nevada.

"The district has produced more than 30Moz of gold, and we intend to transact and grow by acquisition," Malcolm said. "There are several resources in the area where you could put a heap leach operation and then truck the loaded carbon to our ADR facility."