Viva Gold drills high-grade discovery in Nevada, shares rise – Resource World Magazine

Viva Gold drills high-grade discovery in Nevada, shares rise – Resource World Magazine

Viva Gold Corp. [VAU-TSXV, VAUCF-OTCQB] has announced details of a major new gold discovery in the Midway Hills portion of its Tonopah Gold project in Nevada. Viva Gold’s key asset is 100% ownership of the advanced Tonopah Gold Project, a large land position of approximately 3,561 hectares with a measured and indicated resource of 26.7 million tonnes grading 0.59 g/t gold and 2.05 g/t silver or 504,000 ounces of gold and 1.76 million ounces of silver. The project is located about 30 kilometres south-east of Kinross Gold Corp.’s (K-TSX, KGC-NYSE) Round Mountain Mine and 20 kilometres north of the town of Tonopah. On Thursday, the company said hole TG2616 drilled vertically at a dip of minus 90 degrees intercepted 0.89 g/t gold and 6.78 g/t silver over 38.1 metres, including 6.1 metres averaging 3.56 g/t gold and 22.45 g/t silver from 179.8 metres depth. Assays are pending for two remaining exploration holes in the Midway Hills, which are located approximately 1,400 metres northwest of the main resource pit at Tonopah, which is currently the subject of a pre-feasibility study. “Midway Hills is located within the boundaries of the existing Exploration Plan of Operations which will significantly accelerate the approval of additional drilling on this target,’’ the company said in a press release. “This discovery clearly demonstrates the potential for a new zone of high-grade gold mineralization in an area of the Tonopah Gold Project that had been discounted by prior explorers,’’ said Viva Gold President and CEO James Hesketh. Viva Gold shares advanced on the news, rising 8.3% or $0.01 to $0.13. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $0.08 and 21.0 cents. Back in August 2025, the company released a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the Tonopah project, which demonstrates that the project is potentially viable for development as an economic open pit gold mine, producing gold and silver. The PEA details a conventional truck/loader open pit mining operation, producing at a rate of 45,000 tonnes per day over a seven-year mine life to feed a 10,000 tonne-per-day three-stage crushing plant with 2,000 tonnes per day being directed to a gravity/carbon-in-leach gold mill and 8,000 tonnes per day being sent to a heap leach for gold/silver recovery. The project is expected to produce 75,000 ounces of gold annually for the first two years, with average production of approximately 50,000 ounces annually in years three to seven with production from residual leach in year eight. Over the life of the mine, the asset is expected to produce 404,000 ounces of payable gold and 345,000 ounces of silver. The all-in-sustaining cost is pegged at US$1,269 an ounce for gold. Pre-production capital spending is forecast at $219.9 million. In a press release on February 11, 2026, the company said it had staked an additional 36 unpatented lode claims at Tonopah, covering 291 hectares and had received approval from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for 23 new drill sites in and around the PEA design pit area and at the Midway Hills prospect area.