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Richard Young, President & CEO of i-80 Gold Corp. | Rule Symposium 2026: Rick Rule interviews

Rule Investment Media May 21, 2026

Summary

Recapitalized without new equity, i-80 Gold carries a market cap under $2 billion against roughly $10 billion of after-tax NAV per prior studies.

Management guides production from 50,000 ounces this year to more than 600,000 ounces over a three-phase build-out.

An autoclave — a pressure vessel that cooks refractory ore — is being refurbished for $400-plus million, cutting $1,000–$1,500 per ounce of tolling margin.

The company's largest infill and step-out drill program in its history feeds three underground feasibility studies and two oxide pit pre-feasibility studies.

Owning one of Nevada's only two permitted autoclaves opens a cheap route to stranded refractory deposits other miners cannot process.

Key points on Barrick Mining

  • Young says i-80's four past-producing Nevada gold properties were previously owned by Barrick and Newmont, and that the two companies shed them through a series of acquisitions before i-80 was able to acquire them.

Key points on Newmont

  • Young says i-80's four past-producing Nevada gold properties were previously owned by Newmont and Barrick, and that both companies divested them during a period of acquisition activity before i-80 picked them up.

Key points on i-80 Gold Corp

  • Young says the recapitalization completed in the past year left the company fully funded with no further equity issuance needed: about 1.2 billion shares outstanding, a market cap he puts under $2 billion (roughly $1.8 billion), and an after-tax NAV of about $10 billion based on the original preliminary assessments at current metal prices.
  • The three-phase development plan targets a rise from about 50,000 ounces of annual gold production in 2026 to more than 600,000 ounces over the next five to six years, requiring roughly $2 billion of capital, with about half earmarked for the Mineral Point project.
  • Young describes the current infill and step-out drilling as the largest program in company history, with three feasibility studies for the underground projects and two pre-feasibility studies for the oxide open pits due within 12 months of the May 2026 as-of date, and says he expects the projects to grow larger.
  • The roughly $400 million Lone Tree autoclave refurbishment is targeted for completion in Q4 2027; Young calls it the company's strategic advantage because i-80 is one of only two companies in Nevada holding a permitted autoclave, and says it recaptures $1,000 to $1,500 per ounce of margin currently paid to a third-party toll miller.
  • The resource base is stated as 14 million ounces of gold and 200 million ounces of silver, split equally between measured and indicated and inferred across four past-producing, already-permitted properties; Young says the next step is pulling Mineral Point forward from phase three toward permitting and construction, targeting about half a million ounces per year approaching the end of the decade.

Rick Rule's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Rule argues the symposium's exhibitor vetting is unmatched: no public-company exhibitor is admitted unless the conference sponsors already own shares in it, and he says more exhibitors were refused admission this year than were accepted.
  • He backs the programme with an unconditional money-back guarantee on attendance, saying that in 30 years of such guarantees the refunds have amounted to less than one-tenth of one percent of tuition charged.
  • Rule presents the pre-conference interviews of every exhibitor and speaker, plus free access to recordings, as the way attendees extract value from four days of content they cannot absorb in four days, especially for breakouts running simultaneously.
  • He presses the valuation case directly, setting an approximately $1.8 billion market cap against roughly $10 billion of after-tax NAV and pressing Young on the capital required to reach that NAV, which he says for Mineral Point averages at or below comparable projects of the same size.

Richard Young's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Young argues i-80 is undervalued, contrasting an approximately $1.8 billion market cap with about $10 billion of after-tax NAV from the original preliminary assessments at current metal prices, and says there are further opportunities within the portfolio outside even that figure.
  • He says the balance sheet recapitalization completed in the past year left the company fully funded with no need to issue equity, and frames the roughly $2 billion required across the three phases as low capital intensity, with about half for Mineral Point, which he describes as a 20-plus-year mine at roughly 300,000 ounces of gold-equivalent production.
  • Young calls the Lone Tree autoclave a strategic advantage competitors cannot easily replicate: refurbishment costs a little over $400 million, completes in Q4 2027, is worth about $1.5 billion on its own, and pays back in under two years by keeping $1,000 to $1,500 per ounce of margin on a facility with a 40-year life.
  • He wants to accelerate Mineral Point from the third phase of the plan, saying permitting and construction over the next few years could move the company toward half a million ounces per year as the decade ends, helped by a US administration he describes as business-friendly and binding-friendly.
  • Young points to the largest infill and step-out drill program in the company's history, with three feasibility studies for the underground projects and two pre-feasibility studies for the oxide open pits to be completed over the next 12 months, and says he believes the projects will get larger.