Argonaut Gold Inc. announced it has received all necessary regulatory approvals, including a modification to the existing Air Quality permit, to allow for the construction, installation and operation of a new conveying and stacking system at its Florida Canyon mine in Nevada, USA. The equipment associated with the conveying and stacking system is expected to begin arriving on site in May, and it is estimated that the new system will be operational and ramped up to design capacity during the third quarter of 2021. The capital associated with the convey and stack project was included in Argonaut's 2021 capital guidance. During the fourth quarter 2020, the Company eliminated a re-handle of ore prior to the primary crusher by adding a drop box to the design. Haul trucks now dump ore directly into a box that feeds into the primary crusher. Prior to the addition of the drop box, the primary crusher had to be loader fed, which required haul trucks to dump ore on the ground, a dozer to push the ore into a pile and a loader to feed to the primary crusher. Currently, once ore goes through the primary and secondary crushers, it is loaded into haul trucks with a front-end loader and delivered to the leach pads via haul trucks. Argonaut identified potentially significant operating cost savings once it can eliminate the re-handle on the back end of the secondary crushing by switching to a conveying and stacking system to transport crushed ore to the leach pads. This change will also free up mobile equipment to transport more ore tonnes from the open pit to the crusher and is expected to increase the annual production profile at Florida Canyon beginning in 2022.