(Kitco News) - Mackay Gold & Silver is aiming to outline 2 million to 3 million ounces of gold over the next 12 to 24 months in Nevada’s Comstock district, where acquisitions this year have brought the district’s three primary lodes close to single ownership.
Speaking with Kitco Mining on Sept. 22 at the 2026 Precious Metals Summit in Beaver Creek, CEO and Director Darwin Green discussed the deals behind that consolidation. Mackay closed its purchase of the Silver City Lode properties in late August and has agreed to acquire the northern section of the Comstock Lode, including the historic Big Bonanza. The company said that deal would give it control of all the district’s major historical mines once completed. Green said the consolidation means “for the first time in the Comstock’s history, you have one company that controls it all effectively.”
The district produced an estimated 8.2 million ounces of gold and 192 million ounces of silver between 1859 and 1926, according to the company, but ownership stayed divided for most of that time. Green said that kept anyone from exploring it as a single system.
“People aren’t going to drill a small property package if you think that you don’t have the stuff next door, because the deposit center of mass may be next door to you,” he said. “So it was a real barrier to exploration.”
The ounce target has two parts. On the Silver City Lode, Mackay plans to convert historical estimates, which Green put at about 1 million ounces, into resources compliant with National Instrument 43-101. On the Occidental-Brunswick Lode, it is drilling for new ounces. The historical figures are not current mineral resources.
“Our objective over the next 12 to 24 months is to frame in 2 to 3 million ounces by converting the historic and drilling the new,” Green said. He called the figures “goals” and “aspirations,” adding, “The rock’s got to cooperate, but that’s what we’re here for.”
The district holds more targets than Mackay plans to chase at once. “Our challenge really is being disciplined and not getting too scattered chasing different things,” Green said.
The Occidental-Brunswick runs about five kilometers parallel to the Comstock and is undrilled over most of its length, according to the company. It drew far less interest from 19th-century miners. “In the 1800s you needed extremely rich ground to develop,” Green said. Mackay is pursuing near-surface oxide material grading around 1 gram per tonne, which he called “pretty low grade” by Comstock standards, “but for heap leach oxide in Nevada, incredibly high grade.”
Ten holes drilled between 2018 and 2021 had defined about 300 meters of mineralization at Occidental South. Mackay’s first holes went 150 to 250 meters north of that drilling.
“A lot of guys will start out with their first drill program cozy right up to the past drill results, be very conservative because you want to deliver to the market some good grades,” Green said. “We took a very bold step out, went 250 meters out along strike, and we’re actually now backfilling our way to the historic drilling and carrying north.”
On Sept. 15, Mackay reported that the first seven holes nearly doubled the zone’s strike length to about 550 meters. Intercepts included 59.4 meters grading 1.00 grams per tonne gold, 47.2 meters at 1.15 g/t and 48.8 meters at 0.97 g/t, all reported as drilled widths. About 35 holes totaling 5,700 meters had been completed at that point, with assays pending for all but the first seven.
Green described the 20,000-meter program - 15,000 meters of reverse circulation drilling and 5,000 meters of core - as a starting point. “We wanted to walk our way into it without getting ahead of the geology and get ourselves well set up,” he said. Mackay began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange in late April with about US$62 million in cash, according to the company, and Green expects a third and possibly a fourth rig on site within several months.
The core rig, which began drilling in late August, is testing the Sutro Tunnel target. Historical accounts Green cited say the 19th-century drainage tunnel cut 112 feet of vein about 1,500 feet down dip on the Occidental-Brunswick structure. The tunnel is no longer accessible, so drilling is from surface.
Green was careful about what the historical reports mean. “It obviously wasn’t bonanza grade, otherwise they would have mined it. It was described as mineralized. I don’t know if that’s one gram or eight grams.”
The first core hole was still in progress at the time of the interview. “It’s about halfway down, so we haven’t seen anything yet, but we’re all pretty excited,” Green said.
Most of the Occidental South assays were still pending when Green spoke. They will show whether mineralization holds across the roughly one kilometer Mackay has drilled, while the Sutro holes give the company its first direct look at the structure at depth.
Watch the full video on the Kitco Mining YouTube channel.
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