Fortitude Gold starts County Line mine operations, gets permits for Scarlet South

[Ben Graham]

Fortitude Gold (OTCQB: FTCO) said on Wednesday it commenced operations at its County Line mine and made its first shipment of mineralization to its Isabella Pearl gold processing facility in Nevada. 

The Colorado-based company owns 100% interest in the Isabella Pearl mine located along a historic mining trend within the Walker Lane Mineral Belt. The property position covers approximately 9,000 acres. 

County Line is comprised of two historic open pits, the County Line Pit and the East Pit.  This initial mineralization is being mined from the bottom of the County Line Pit, the company said, adding that a pit layback is planned to commence during the second half of 2026 and extend into the second half of 2027. 

The company is currently updating its County Line Mineral Resource to include exploration drilling from the East Pit which was drilled subsequent to, and not included in, the original 2022 Resource, it said.  

The project has several areas with exploration upside potential that are anticipated to expand the project’s mine life, which include a target north of the County Line Pit, an area south of the East Pit, the Newman Ridge area to the east, as well as an area further to the south at the historic Rex mine, it said.   

“We are excited to have begun operations at County Line marking another Fortitude Gold milestone of placing our second Nevada gold mine into production,” Fortitude CEO Jason Reid said in a news release. 

Scarlet South  

Earlier in the week, Fortitude announced it received all approvals from the Bureau of Land Management and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection to construct and operate the Scarlet South open-pit gold mine located on the Isabella Pearl property. 

The Scarlet South open-pit project is located approximately 500 meters (0.3 miles) northwest of the operating Isabella Pearl mine, heap leach pad and ADR processing plant.  Mine operations are expected to begin at Scarlet South in the coming weeks, the company said. 

 “In addition, having recently been granted permits for our Scarlet South open pit, we now target our third operating gold mine at Scarlet South in the very near future,” Reid said in Wednesday’s release.  

“Once we are granted permits, our synergistic hub and spoke business plan allows us to place new mines into production much faster and for less capital by leveraging existing infrastructure as opposed to building brand new processing facilities at every new mine.  We plan to deliver gold to our Isabella Pearl processing facility from three different sources, Isabella Pearl deep, County Line, and Scarlet South, in 2026.”