"Ruby Hill is one of several projects that we are looking to advance to mine development in the next twelve months and early results from our first-ever drill programme have confirmed our belief that the property has excellent potential to host a world-class, Carlin-type gold deposit," i-80's CEO Ewan Downie said.

He said that the extent of Carlin-type alteration and mineralization in the Eureka district is comparable to Nevada's most productive gold districts on the Carlin, Getchell, and Battle Mountain trends.

"We are not only excited by the impressive widths of high-grade mineralization we are seeing in our early drilling, but also by the apparent rock quality that appears more competent than expected and bodes well for mining," he said.

Canaccord Genuity Capital Markets analyst Michael Fairbairn said the results bode well for future drilling and an upcoming resource update and preliminary economic assessment and pre-feasibility study, expected in the second half of this year.

"Importantly, these intercepts were higher-grade than the current Ruby Hill underground resource, which consists of 1.79 million oz grading ~5.9g/t on a global basis," he said.

"Today's results align well with our 1.15 million oz, 7.8g/t assumed resource, possibly providing an indication of more ounces than we anticipate given the degree of the widths," he said.

Results highlighted from i-80's initial drilling in the Ruby Deeps horizon include:

• 7.0g/t Au over 71.6 metres incl. 9.0g/t Au over 15.8 metres and 7.7g/t Au over 16.5 metres
• 9.0g/t Au over 18.3 metres incl. 10.7g/t Au over 12.2 metres
• 9.1g/t Au over 24.7 metres incl. 11.0g/t Au over 16.2 metres
• 7.1g/t Au over 78.6 metres incl. 10.1g/t Au over 41.8 metres

The company's share price was quoted as C$3.10 (US$2.38) on May 11, giving i-80 a market capitalization of C$744.83 million.