Barrick Gold Mine Life Extended by 10 Years

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Barrick Gold announced that it has extended the life of its Veladero gold mine in San Juan, Argentina by a period of at least 10 years. This follows a review of its strategy and business plan by the company.

According to Mark Bristow, president and chief executive officer, the company aims to extend the mine life beyond 2030. Further, it intends to elevate the mine into a “tier one” asset, which by definition, has a production capacity of more than 500,000 ounces of gold per year.

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Earlier in August 2019, the company had announced investment of $34 million in the western Argentina mine towards review of the mine’s geological model and assessment of the possibility for expanding its footprint. Accordingly, the company carried out reinterpretation of the mine’s geology and an infill drilling campaign. Also, exploration and resource management teams were established to identify satellite orebodies.

In the next phase, the mine will be connected to cleaner, cheaper power from the grid in neighboring Chile, which is expected to be completed by H2 2020. This could potentially reduce the mine’s carbon footprint by at least 50%.

The projects related to revitalizing of the gold mine have created nearly 1,400 new employment opportunities since the beginning of 2019.