Hello, and thank you for joining today's conference call and webcast on i-80 Gold's Lone Tree refurbishment update. Today's company presenters include Richard Young, President and CEO of i-80 Gold, Paul Chawrun, COO, and Ryan Snow, CFO. Before we continue, please note that some of today's comments may contain forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially. I ask everyone to view slide two of the presentation, which is available on i-80 Gold's website and webcast, to review the cautionary notes regarding the forward-looking statements made on this call and the risk factors related to these statements. Following today's formal presentation, we will open the call to your questions. I will now turn the call over to Richard.
Sylvie, thank you very much, and thank you for joining us today. We'll start on slide three. We're pleased to provide an update on the refurbishment of our Lone Tree plant following completion of the engineering study. I would like to apologize for the late call in the year. The study was complete about four weeks ago, but between Thanksgiving and site visits as part of the recapitalization, this is the first week that Paul's back in the office, and Ryan will give an update on the recap. We are sorry for the Friday before the Christmas week, but here we go. Our Lone Tree plant is located within close proximity of our gold projects in northern Nevada, and the plant is located immediately adjacent to Interstate 80.
This is a cornerstone asset central to our hub-and-spoke mining and processing strategy, designed to process both our high-grade refractory and oxide feed from our three underground gold projects. Those projects include Granite Creek Underground, which is currently operating and processing material under a third-party toll milling agreement, Archimedes, where we commenced underground construction last quarter, and Cove, our third planned underground mine that's advancing towards feasibility and permitting. As illustrated on the map, all three projects are located within a direct distance of approximately 200 km or less from the Lone Tree plant. The plant design includes both an autoclave and carbon-in-leach circuits capable of processing both refractory material through the autoclave and oxide material through the CIL alone. i-80 is one of two companies in Nevada with autoclave processing facilities.
The other is Nevada Gold Mines, a joint venture between Barrick Gold Corporation and Newmont Corporation at their Twin Creeks Turquoise Ridge Complex, as well as Goldstrike. Turning to slide four, the planned refurbishment and commissioning of the Lone Tree plant represents a major turning point in advancing our development plan. Today, we're reliant on a third-party toll milling to process refractory material, which significantly impacts our economics. Once the Lone Tree plant is commissioned, we'll have the ability to process both sulfide and high-grade oxide material in-house. This shift is expected to be transformative for the business, as it's expected to drive meaningful improvement in our margin per ounce of gold and translate into stronger free cash flow generation. Looking forward, we expect margins to improve by between $1,000 and $1,500 per ounce of gold, depending on grade and gold price.
The engineering study was completed by Hatch Ltd, who are a globally recognized engineering firm known for their deep expertise in autoclave design and technology, having designed numerous POX and refractory gold processing facilities worldwide. The team at Hatch is truly best in class. We're very pleased with their work, which builds on our previous internal engineering study also completed by Hatch in 2023. Hatch's responsibility in the study includes the engineering of the refurbishment design and capital costs, while we at i-80 were responsible for completing the associated mine plan basis, metallurgical test work, recovery analysis, and operating cost assessments based on the Hatch design and detailed mass balance and economic analysis. Now, turning to slide five, you can see the extensive existing infrastructure on the property.
The Lone Tree plant was initially commissioned in 1991 by Santa Fe Pacific Gold, which was later acquired by Newmont Corporation in 1997. The pressure oxidation, or POX circuit, was initially commissioned in 1993 and operated for 14 years before the site was put on care and maintenance in 2007. In July 2019, Lone Tree became part of Nevada Gold Mines through the Barrick-Newmont joint venture, and i-80 acquired the Lone Tree property from NGM in October of 2021. Since the acquisition, the plant has remained on care and maintenance, while residual leaching of the historic Lone Tree heap leach pad has continued. The property also includes the past-producing Lone Tree open pit deposit, which hosts defined resources and, subject to permitting, technical studies, and economic evaluation, could be repermitted and integrated into future development plans once underground feed declines in the later years.
I'll now turn the call over to Paul to discuss the detailed engineering work and why we view this build as highly manageable and low-risk. Paul.
Thanks, Richard, and hello, everybody. Starting on slide six. As Richard mentioned, we're very pleased with both the work completed and the outcome of the engineering study. Over a two-year period, we've invested approximately $13 million to complete the engineering work through its evolving phases. Hatch spent significant time on-site, working closely with our technical team throughout the process, who also have extensive experience in commissioning and operating autoclaves in Nevada. The study confirms that the new plant design incorporates standard, technically straightforward upgrades aimed at improving plant operating efficiency. Further, the work is considered a low execution risk, as demonstrated by the modest number of direct construction hours, the limited long lead equipment required, the right people in place for construction and operation, and the asset's location centrally within a mature tier-one mining district.
To put the scale of this project into perspective, approximately 600,000 direct construction hours are estimated needed to complete the work, with a peak workforce of about 400 construction personnel, and this suggests a relatively low overall construction intensity when compared to new greenfield mines that typically require construction hours in the millions. Further, approximately 30% of the detailed engineering work is now complete, resulting in a high level of technical definition and improved accuracy of our capital cost estimate, allowing us to advance towards the execution phase with a high degree of confidence. The construction process will be overseen by an experienced Nevada-based owners' team with a proven track record in constructing, commissioning, and operating autoclave processing facilities, and it is supported by a highly skilled contractor base that can be sourced locally.
In addition to Hatch, the internal team brings highly relevant and extensive experience in refractory gold metallurgy and the construction, commissioning, and operation of POX autoclave facilities. Our team brings 20 to more than 40 years of individual experience in autoclave and roaster operations, processing, and capital projects gained through senior roles at some of Nevada's largest and most successful gold mines, such as Goldstrike, Turquoise Ridge, and Bald Mountain. We feel this level of experience materially reduces our execution risk, supports permitting, and offers operating credibility. Moving to the scope of work on slide seven, the objective of the refurbishment is to upgrade and modernize the plant to update the Lone Tree plant to current-day technology and modern controls that will improve process efficiency and operating flexibility, the potential to increase gold recovery and to meet new environmental compliance standards.
To achieve this, the scope of work includes a combination of new and improved design components, such as the installation of a mercury abatement circuit to meet current environmental regulations, and the replacement of some existing infrastructure, such as legacy CIL tanks, a new oxygen plant, and a refinery. Another key component is the addition of a tailings filtration system. Compared to conventional tailings, filtered tails represent a more environmentally responsible process that significantly lowers long-term risk, with increased water recovery, a smaller environmental footprint, and a simpler, lower-cost reclamation and closure process. The design also incorporates a new oxygen plant to meet updated processing requirements while further reducing project risk compared to the previous study, which contemplated refurbishing the existing oxygen plant.
Turning to slide eight, the autoclave is designed to process up to 2,268 metric tons per day, so that's 2,500 imperial tons, delivering a total annual throughput of approximately 827,800 metric tons at 85% plant availability. This capacity is consistent with historic production performance. The plant has also been designed with significant processing flexibility, where it will be capable of processing refractory material through the integrated POX CIL circuit, and oxide material can bypass the POX circuit to be treated solely through the CIL circuit after grinding. Bypassing the POX circuit when treating oxide material has the potential to increase annual throughput by between 5 and 10% above the nameplate capacity by enabling the processing of oxide material during planned autoclave maintenance outages. As Richard noted earlier, the autoclave feed will consist of refractory material from our three planned high-grade underground mines: Granite Creek, Archimedes, and Cove.
High-grade oxide mineralized material from the Granite Creek underground and the upper level of Archimedes underground is anticipated to be processed through the CIL circuit at the plant. The updated design incorporates an acid-based POX process only, whereas previously both acid and alkaline processes were contemplated in the design. The move to an acid-based POX system is expected to improve overall gold recovery compared to the alkaline process, which more than offsets the slightly higher additional operating cost. Moving to slide nine, over the past several years, we have completed extensive engineering reviews, operating assessments, and trade-off studies to optimize the project capital and to identify opportunities to accelerate Lone Tree's development timeline. The total estimated capital cost for the project is $412 million, inclusive of contingency of approximately 12%, owner's cost, and first fills, plus approximately $18 million in capital spares for a total of $430 million.
This is above the anticipated amount of approximately $400 million, mostly due to increased costs associated with inflation and engineering design details, as well as additional redundancy by expanding the capacity of the tailings filter. This capital estimate is supported by approximately 14,000 line items in the control estimate, which provides a high level of confidence as we execute the project. We anticipate a potential payback of approximately 12- 24 months, depending on the grade and gold price. And just walking through some of the numbers, the 2023 study was $386 million. If you take a look at escalation and inflation and then some of the influences that we may have on tariffs, it's approximately $68 million more with the same scope.
However, the team has done an excellent job optimizing, so we have the oxygen plant, we've reduced some of the steel, we now have acidification only, and we've reduced the timeline with early works by starting the LNTP back in August, so that reduces the overall capital cost by approximately $61 million, and then additional scope items that we have put in, such as extra filters, some battery limit tie-ins, and a comprehensive owner's cost adds about $38 million overall to bring the project to about $430 million. Turning to slide 10 to discuss the project timeline. Early works activities commenced under a Limited Notice to Proceed granted by our board in the third quarter of 2025, enabling detailed engineering, procurement of long lead equipment, and the start of permitting updates.
We're on track to complete the engineering designs associated with the construction and environmental permits in the fourth quarter of 2025. Permitting applications are projected to be submitted in the first quarter of 2026, following the internal review process. The plant is permitted for the existing operational components that are in use. However, the approval of new and revised permit applications pertaining to air quality, water pollution, mercury emissions, and reclamation management for the new plant design remain outstanding. We expect to make a construction decision once the necessary financing is in place, approximately mid-2026 or sooner. Construction is targeted to begin in the second half of 2026, with plant commissioning anticipated towards the end of 2027. Decommissioning is expected to begin in Q2 of 2026.
With the key design elements, scope, and cost defined, I'll now turn the call over to Ryan to provide an update on the recapitalization strategy.
Thank you, Paul. Turning to slide 11. As Paul mentioned, the updated capital estimate for the refurbishment project is approximately $412 million, inclusive of a contingency of 12%, plus an additional $18 million in capital spares for a total of $430 million. These updated estimates have been incorporated into the financial model that we're utilizing for the recapitalization. I'm pleased to report that we continue to make very good progress advancing our recapitalization plan to establish a comprehensive financing package to fund phase one and two of our development plan and restructure our existing debt obligations of approximately $200 million. The team has been busy for the last couple of months advancing discussions and related due diligence with approximately half a dozen parties on a potential financing package that strives to include a combination of senior debt, a royalty sale, and a non-core asset sale.
On the senior debt front, we're currently evaluating five term sheets and working through due diligence with each of these potential counterparts. Negotiations are well advanced on these term sheets and will continue to evolve over the coming weeks. The terms are competitive, and more importantly, this component of the recapitalization is expected to provide the financial certainty needed to progress the development plan. Reception and engagement in the debt market have been very strong, and we're confident that we'll secure funding by the end of the second quarter of 2026 or earlier, at which point we'll seek a construction decision from the board. On the royalty front, the company has received a term sheet from a well-regarded royalty provider who was on site last week performing due diligence. We're encouraged by the third-party interest in our assets, which underscores the quality of our portfolio and our people in Nevada.
In particular, Mineral Point, and we'll be evaluating all of our recapitalization plans with a lens to provide flexibility regarding future funding for Mineral Point. I also would like to highlight that in order to complete the recapitalization, we'll be repaying the existing debt on the balance sheet. This will include calling our option on the publicly traded convertible debenture. This process could take up to 60 days to complete once it is initiated. We also continue to advance the sale of our non-core Fad project. This process is progressing, and there are currently many companies active in the data room. We anticipate receiving indicative proposals in the first quarter. This financing is a major catalyst for i-80. It will complete the process that began in late 2024 to clean up and strengthen the balance sheet, and it will materially advance i-80's development pipeline.
All in all, I feel very confident about the status of the recapitalization, and now I'll turn the call back over to Richard.
Thank you, Ryan. Sylvie will now open the call up to questions.
Yes, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions at this time, please press star followed by one on your touch-tone phone. You will then hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by two. And if you're using a speakerphone, please lift the handset first before pressing any keys. Please go ahead and press star one now if you have any questions. Thank you. First, we will hear from Omid Singh at SCP Resource Finance. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Congrats on delivering this. I mean, it's obviously rounding up a very big year for all of you. So I just want to take that time to say congrats on that. My question really is around the capacity of the plant. Obviously, you guys have three undergrounds feeding into it at some point. Could you maybe speak to the blend there of oxides with the sulfides? And is there any plans around there for supplementing this with toll milling? Or just your overall thoughts on feed versus the capacity of the plant as the three of them come up and running?
Yeah, no, that's an excellent question, and we've obviously spent a lot of time on that. So first of all, it's the sulfide ore that is not oxidized that is the primary feed to the autoclave coming from the three underground mines. So Granite Creek is feeding an autoclave right now to a third-party provider. We're in the range of about 700 tons a day. We're evaluating. We're working on a feasibility now. There's potential that that could increase to some degree. We've already started development at Archimedes, and those two mines will have plenty of capacity to feed at 2,500 tons per day. That's imperial, so tons. And that's based on the retention time of the autoclave. Now, that's based on approximately 85% availability. And there's areas within both Granite Creek and Archimedes that have oxide ore.
So what we plan to do is stockpile the oxide ore and then feed that and bypass the autoclave during times of planned maintenance of the autoclave. Now, we may be able to increase the availability of the autoclave, but it's a conservative number, and that was based on historical records at 85%. So we don't actually blend the oxide and the sulfide. Now, over to the sulfide, that does get blended between Granite Creek, Archimedes, and then in time, Cove. And the main thing there is you have to have your sulfur content managed over a long period of time. And then you want to make sure that you don't have too much carbonates because then that consumes a lot of acid. So basically, we plan to have about a month to a month and a half of inventory ahead. We'll have a metal balance done every day.
And then you blend it through to have a consistent feed. It's more about consistency of the feed than it is in terms of some of the potential issues that could be in the blend itself. We're very confident that we can be able to provide that with the mine plan. And then in terms of toll milling, your other question, no, we do not expect, or that is not in our plan right now because we plan to be able to process all the feed from the underground.
Just for that, that's a lot of color. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions, please press star followed by one on your touch-tone phone. And at this time, Mr. Young, it appears we have no other questions. Please proceed.
I'd like to thank everybody for joining us on this Friday before the holidays. Look, we are really pleased with the year that we've had. We put out a development plan essentially 13 months ago, and we're executing on that plan. There are three phases to that plan that we'll see production rise from less than 50,000 ounces this year to over 600,000 ounces by the time we complete phase three in the early 2030s. I think what we're most impressed with here at i-80 for Paul, Ryan, and I are the team that's been assembled. We've had roughly a dozen new hires over the last three months, and these are the technical people that will actually do the heavy lifting in this plan. We've hired just a great group of people, and it is a great team.
And we look forward to 2026 and the feasibility studies, the refinancing, and moving forward with the refurbishment. So I'd like to thank everyone for joining today and their support through the course of this year and have a happy and safe holiday. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. And at this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your line.