Two Nevada Operations On Track To Produce Excess Of 1 Million Ounces Of Gold Per Year.
TORONTO – Barrick Gold Corporation President and Chief Executive, Mark Bristow, said, “While steering the Company towards the achievement of its 2024 guidance, management was also maintaining its focus on value creation and growth. The recently permitted Goldrush mine in Nevada which is ramping up to annual production in excess of 400,000 ounces by 2028. The mine’s development plan incorporates drill platform access to support future growth through conversion of the mineral resource base, currently standing at 9.8 million ounces at 5.88g/t within indicated with a further 4.2 million ounces at 5.4g/t in the inferred category (100% basis). The adjacent Fourmile project, in Nevada, drilling has confirmed a grade which is consistently double that of Goldrush’s along the 2.5-kilometer strike length of mineralization. Ten diamond core rigs are currently on-site drilling in support of an updated mineral resource statement at the end of the year. Prefeasibility options are being assessed for a year-end decision on an asset that is demonstrating the potential for annual production in excess of 500,000 ounces over more than two decades. Fourmile’s proximity to the permitted Goldrush mine will facilitate its advancement.
On the copper side of the business, two world-class projects are set to deliver into a rising price and demand market. In Zambia, the Lumwana super pit expansion will increase the mine’s production from 130,000 tonnes to 240,000 tonnes per annum. The Reko Diq project in Pakistan is scheduled to deliver its first concentrate before the end of 2028, Reko Diq is one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold deposit. With an estimated life of mine of 40 years, and with exploration targets supporting the potential to double that, Reko Diq will not only elevate Barrick into the front rank of copper producers, but is destined to economically transform the Balochistan province as well as to be a major growth engine for Pakistan. The Reko Diq feasibility study remains on track for completion by the end of this year and, in the meantime, the construction of key enabling infrastructure is underway. Long lead items are being ordered so that work on the processing facility construction can start immediately once the final investment approval is given.
In the Dominican Republic, Pueblo Viejo is completing an expansion project designed to increase gold production to more than 800,000 ounces beyond 2040. The Margajita River has been restored to its natural state, bringing back fishing activity to the area. During the past quarter Barrick launched what is believed to be the industry’s first comprehensive biodiversity assessment tool. It was produced in collaboration with external experts and incorporates local knowledge and priorities to establish baselines and identify residual impacts. The development of the tool is another milestone in achieving Barrick’s differentiated sustainability strategy aimed at making a tangible difference on the ground, where it matters most.
“We are using this tool at all our sites which allows us to quantify both positive and negative impacts on biodiversity across our operations worldwide. This informed approach will guide targeted actions to take our already established rehabilitation and key biodiversity conservation initiatives to another level,” Bristow said. The Nevada Gold Mines’ Gold Quarry roaster — the older of the complex’s two roasters — is being extensively upgraded to increase its total throughput rate by 20%, improving cost efficiency and gold production. The final phase of the upgrade started late in Q2 and includes additional quench and solution cooling capacity and other major components. The project also includes the replacement of the sulphur dioxide converter supporting emission controls.
At Kibali in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a cyanide recovery plant has been commissioned in what is the mining industry’s first full-scale application of an upflow reactor technology, which recycles the cyanide instead of destroying it. The plant is achieving its cyanide reduction design performance, maintaining cyanide in the tailings to below the 50ppm target, while delivering an above-expectation additional gold recovery of 0.85%. In the hunt for alternative leaching agents, testwork at Bulyanhulu in Tanzania has shown that a glycine-assisted leach in the cyanide-in-leach circuit significantly reduces cyanide consumption and reduces detoxification requirements. Glycine amenability bulk and pilot tests are also being conducted at Kibali and Loulo in Africa, as well as Nevada Gold Mines and at Veladero in Argentina, alongside evaluation of other lixiviant products. Despite the operational challenges presented by the recent Mulitaka landslide, Porgera Gold Mine has met or exceeded its targets since resuming mining in December last year, with gold production and performance on all-in sustaining costs14 for the first half of the year setting the mine up to achieve full year guidance.
Recently, the Barrick-operated Nevada Gold Mines (NGM), a joint venture with Newmont Corporation, has completed the construction of the second and final phase of a 200-megawatt solar power plant, which will have the capacity of producing 17% of NGM’s annual power demand while realizing an equivalent emissions reduction of 234 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide per year. “The solar facility is one of many initiatives to reduce our reliance on carbon-based electricity sources. The Company is also in the process of modifying NGM’s TS Power Plant to use cleaner burning natural gas as a fuel source. Additionally, in 2023, we began introducing electric vehicles to our light vehicle fleet which included the required charging infrastructure in Elko and at the main mines Carlin, Cortez, Turquoise Ridge and Phoenix as well as here at the TS Power Plant.