Northern Nevada Business Weekly: http://www.nnbw.com/Default.aspx
Barrick Gold Corporation’s two new gold discoveries in Nevada represent the biggest mining story in the state for 2011, says Alan Coyner, administrator for the Nevada Division of Minerals.
In September, Barrick said it had found estimated resources of nearly 3.5 million ounces of gold at its Red Hill and Goldrush claims a few miles southeast of the company’s flagship Cortez mining operations 75 miles southwest of Elko.
Barrick is conducting further drilling on the claim area to determine the full scope of the discovery and to move the estimated, or inferred, resource amount into proven reserves.
“It is the story of the year because of its size,” Coyner told a standing-room crowd of top-level mining executives last week at the annual Northwest Mining Association conference at John Ascuaga’s Nugget. “It is obviously going to be big — you can tell from the cross-sections and the drill intercepts that they have published,” Coyner said. “It further strengthens Barrick’s position in Nevada outside of the Carlin Trend. Their biggest deposits are Goldstrike and Meikle, and now they have another anchor.”
Barrick acquired the property in January of 2006 when it purchased Placer Dome Inc. of Vancouver. Placer Dome had existing mining operations basically one ridge away on Mount Tenabo, prompting Coyner to joke that Placer Dome geologists should have simply walked down the hill to find a major new discovery.
Rob Krcmarov, Barrick’s senior vice president of exploration, said earlier this year that geologists drew on their extensive knowledge of Carlin-type deposits to find the hidden Red Hill and Gold Rush deposits. Further drilling will help expand the scope of the resources, Krcmarov said.
“The mineralization in both deposits remains open in multiple directions. We have more work to do, but these discoveries have the potential to become truly world-class deposits,” he said.
Discoveries such as Red Hill and Goldrush are crucial to keep the pipeline of new mining projects full, Coyner adds. There currently are 20 major gold mining operations in the state, and without new discoveries those mines would eventually play out — especially at the current annual production rate of about five million to six million ounces.
Other significant discoveries in Nevada over the past few years include Newmont Mining Company’s Long Canyon prospect in the Pequop Mountains between Wells and Wendover, and Midway Gold’s Spring Valley project in the Humboldt Mountains near Lovelock in Pershing County, which has proven resources of two million ounces and an inferred resource estimate of an additional two million ounces.
The Long Canyon project is especially important for Newmont, Coyner says, because it gives the company another major footprint in the state. Newmont purchased the property from Vancouver-based Fronteer Gold in April for $2.3 billion. At the time, the property had an estimated resource of 2.2 million ounces of gold.
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