Fondaway Canyon is an advanced stage gold property located in the US state of Nevada. The project is owned by Nevada-focused gold and copper exploration company Getchell Gold.
The company optioned Fondaway Canyon in January 2020 and fulfilled the terms of the Option in January 2024 to acquire 100% stake in the property.
In January 2025, Getchell Gold announced positive results from an independent Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on Fondaway Canyon gold project.
According to the PEA, the project can produce 117,300 ounces of gold annually over an a 10.5-year life-of-mine (LOM).
Initial capital costs were estimated to be $226.5m, including a 20% contingency.
In 2025, the company seeks to explore multiple avenues to further improve the economics of the project.
Fondaway Canyon Project Location
The Fondaway Canyon Project is situated on the western side of the Stillwater Range in Churchill County, in the northwestern region of Nevada. It lies 140km northeast of Reno and 58km northeast of Fallon.
Overall, the project encompasses 253 contiguous, unpatented mining lode claims, spanning roughly 1,806 hectares on land managed by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These claims are presently held by Richard E. Fisk through an agreement with the company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Getchell Gold.
Geology and Mineralisation
Gold deposits are typically found near first-order, deep-crustal fault zones, which are believed to have long-standing structural influences. The major faults display complex structural histories.
At Fondaway, the gold mineralisation is specifically identified as structurally controlled, vein-associated, and locally disseminated within zones of silicification and/or brecciation. It conforms with as an orogenic intrusion-related mesothermal gold system.
Economic mineralisation usually occurs as vein fill within second- and third-order shears and faults, especially at points where the fault zones experience jogs or strike changes. The styles of mineralisation range from stockworks and breccias in shallow, brittle areas, to laminated crack-seal veins and sigmoidal vein arrays in brittle-ductile zones, and to replacement and disseminated orebodies in deeper, ductile environments.
Fondaway Canyon Mineral Resource Estimate
In September 2024, Getchell Gold announced an updated mineral resource estimate for the Fondaway Canyon gold project.
This includes Indicated Mineral Resource of 13.5 million tonnes, with an average grade of 1.49 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold, amounting to 648,000 ounces of gold. Additionally, the Inferred Mineral Resource stands at 44.8 million tonnes with an average grade of 1.16 g/t of gold, for additional 1.6 million ounces of gold.
These figures reflect an 8% increase in Indicated Mineral Resources and an 11% increase in Inferred Mineral Resources compared to the previous MRE.
Mining and Recovery
The Fondaway Canyon Project is designed as an open-pit mining operation utilising conventional equipment. This hard rock open-pit mine will engage a contractor for mining activities, with a plan to operate on 6m benches using haul trucks, along with standard drilling and blasting techniques. The objective is to extract processed material at a rate of 8,000 tonnes per day.
A smaller pit shell, identified as pit shell 40, was selected over the maximum possible size due to the high waste stripping requirements and the extended lead times associated with larger economic pits. This pit shell, corresponding to a 40% Revenue Factor, includes a total of 199.2 million tonnes, with 35.4 million tonnes of processed material at an average grade of 1.51 grams per tonne of gold, yielding 1.7 million ounces of contained gold.
The process flowsheet for planning and cost estimation includes a comminution circuit designed to process 8,000 tonnes per day, involving three-stage crushing followed by a closed-circuit ball mill-cyclone system.
Rougher flotation is anticipated to recover 88% to 90% of the gold in 20% of the weight. The two-stage cleaner flotation process is expected to reject 50% of the weight while recovering 95% of the gold in the rougher concentrate. The second-cleaner concentrate will represent 10% of the original feed’s weight, approximately 800 tonnes per day, with an assay of about 20 grams per tonne of gold.
Gold recovery in the pressure oxidation circuit is estimated at 95% of the contained gold in the flotation concentrate.
The process flowsheet comprises three stages of crushing, followed by a ball-mill-cyclone configuration. The cyclone overflow will be directed to rougher flotation, with the rougher concentrate moving to first-cleaner flotation. The first-cleaner tailings, combined with the rougher tailings, will be sent to the tailings pond, while the first-cleaner concentrate will be further upgraded in second-cleaner flotation.
Contractors Involved
The PEA for the Fondaway Canyon Project was led by Forte Dynamics of Colorado. As the lead consultant, Forte Dynamics managed the study, focusing on mine planning, design parameters, and estimating both operating and capital costs.
The study received additional support from Forte Analytical, which handled metallurgical studies, process design, process facilities, and plant site infrastructure. APEX Geoscience provided the mineral resource estimate.
