Marigold Mine officials told the Lander County Board of Commissioners on April 24 that the company has advanced a pre-feasibility study for the Buffalo Valley deposit and expects to begin NEPA permitting by late 2025.

The update, delivered by Richard Zogel, study manager, and Jesse Barto, environmental manager, outlined a multi‑year schedule that would complete feasibility engineering in early 2026, enter detailed design in 2026–27, and begin construction of site infrastructure in 2028–29 with possible first production in 2029 if permitting and design proceed as planned.

The company said Buffalo Valley is a different geologic style than the existing Marigold operation and currently has maiden reserves declared in the first quarter of 2025. "We put all those projects through an initial assessment phase," Zogel said, and Buffalo Valley "rose to the top" for further study. Barto described the planned processing as a run‑of‑mine heap leach with a cascade CIC configuration and an 8,000 gpm design for processing and carbon‑in‑column recovery.

Marigold staff described several technical issues under study, including dewatering of lower pit benches where the water table is present, geochemistry and hydrology baseline work, seismic and geotechnical studies for heap and waste facilities, and preliminary pit‑lake analyses. "We're doing all of the pit lake study work," Zogel said, and the company is also evaluating backfill options in coordination with federal land managers.

The company outlined infrastructure needs, including a roughly 10‑mile road from Marigold to Buffalo Valley to move equipment and carbon trucks. Anton Krueger, general manager, said the road would be used both for site construction and to reposition existing Marigold equipment: "One of the benefits of Buffalo Valley is because of the size, we have extra hours with our current life in line on some of the shovels and some of the trucks at Marigold. So that equipment can be utilized to go down and mine Buffalo Valley... but we need a road for that stuff to get there." When commissioners asked about mine life, Marigold noted current reserves of about 2,000,000 ounces and estimated the combined operation could extend mine life by several years depending on whether Buffalo Valley is developed standalone or integrated with Marigold.

Marigold said it selected a NEPA contractor and plans to enter the NEPA review in the fourth quarter of 2025. Baseline studies already under way include cultural, paleontological, biological, groundwater monitoring (vibrating‑wire piezometers and monitoring wells), and sage‑grouse habitat assessments. The presenters said some rapid infiltration basins are in the preliminary layout for dewatering discharge but that final locations remain under study.

Marigold told the commissioners it is evaluating closure and reclamation options and said it prefers backfilling where feasible, though it has not made a final decision. The company noted it is a signatory to the International Cyanide Management Code and said it has been coordinating with the BLM and other stakeholders to avoid obstructing public access and to refine reclamation plans.

Commissioners asked about road use, staffing and how Buffalo Valley would change Marigold's overall mine life; company representatives said the road would carry large mining equipment, carbon trucks and personnel and that an integrated development could add roughly 1–4 years to the combined mine life compared with a standalone project that could add 3–4 years.

No formal action was taken by the board on the Marigold presentation.