The newest gold mining company to focus on assets in the United States, i-80 Gold Corp., now has a management team in place.

Premier Gold Mines Limited announced the anticipated management team for i-80 Gold Corp, a team that will be led by Ewan Downie who was named chief executive officer.

i-80 Gold Corp was formed as part of the C$612 million ($478 million) acquisition of Premier by Equinox Gold in December. The friendly takeover proposed consolidating Premier’s gold asset in Nevada under a new entity, headquartered in Reno, NV.

With the head office located in Reno Nevada, the key members of i-80 will include; Downie, Chief and director, Ron Clayton, chairman of the board, Matthew Gili, president & chief operating officer, Matthew Gollat, executive vice-president business & corporate development, Ryan Snow, chief financial officer and Brent Kristof, executive vice-president projects & evaluations.

Downie is an accomplished company builder and entrepreneur with more 25 years experience in the mining sector. Downie served as founder, president and CEO of Premier and prior to this, founder president and CEO of Wolfden Resources Inc. Both companies enjoyed significant value appreciation following inception resulting in both being acquired with spinout vehicles to the benefit of shareholders.

Clayton is a highly experienced mining executive with more than 40 years in the business. He has successfully guided companies through the mine life cycle, including advanced-stage exploration, development, construction and mining. Clayton is currently the president and CEO of 1911 Gold Corporation, an exploration and development company.

Gili is a professional mining engineer with experience spanning chief executive officer, chief operating officer, chief technical officer and general manager roles. His deep technical experience included previously being executive general manager -Cortez District, leading one of Barrick’s top mining operations in Nevada, following which he was promoted to chief technical officer for Barrick Gold Corporation.

Gollat is an accomplished executive with more than 12 years public company experience in many aspects of the mine development cycle. Gollat currently holds the position of vice-president business development at Premier Gold Mines limited and participated in multiple corporate and strategic development projects including the friendly acquisition of Premier Gold Mines, the spin out of i-80 Gold Corp, and the earlier creation of Premier Royalty Corp.

Snow is a mining finance professional with more than 15 years of experience in financial management and reporting in both Canada and the United States (IFRS and US GAAP), internal controls, M&A, risk management and taxation. Prior to joining i-80 Gold, Snow served most recently as Vice-President of Finance for Nevada Copper, where he helped to secure project financing and restructure debt during the construction and production ramp up of the Pumpkin Hollow mine.

Kristof is a professional engineer with 40 years of leadership and team-building successes in technical, operations, maintenance, and business improvement in underground and surface mines and projects in Canada, the United States, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Mexico. Kristof is currently the senior vice-president, operations for Premier, responsible for operations and project development in Mexico and Nevada.

“It has been our goal to launch i-80 with an industry-best management team and the core group we have been able to attract achieves this first priority target,” said Downie. “This team brings the proven track record in mine development and operations, including extensive experience leading major gold mining complexes in Nevada, including Cortez and Turquoise Ridge. The combined team brings substantial success in corporate growth having built multiple companies from early exploration concept to full mine production. I look forward to working with this group as we quickly accelerate the growth of i-80’s advanced-stage asset portfolio and build Nevada’s premier growth company.”

The board of directors planned for i-80 include current Premier board members Ewan Downie, John Seaman, John Begeman and Eva Bellissimo, and new members Ron Clayton, Greg Smith and Arthur Einav.