{"id":1118220,"date":"2019-05-28T20:16:03","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T20:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resourceworld.com\/?p=55816"},"modified":"2019-05-28T20:16:03","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T20:16:03","slug":"barrick-gold-mulls-us1b-dominican-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1118220","title":{"rendered":"Barrick Gold mulls US$1B Dominican expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barrick Gold Corp.<\/strong> [ABX-TSX; GOLD-NYSE] is proposing an expansion of the processing plant and tailings capacity at its Pueblo Viejo gold mine in the Dominican Republic, a move that is expected to require capital expenditures of at least US$1 billion.<\/p>\n

The expansion may extend the operation\u2019s life to beyond 2030 and keep production over 800,000 ounces annually beyond 2022. A pre-feasibility for the plant expansion and additional tailings capacity is expected in the second half of 2019, followed by a full feasibility study in 2020.<\/p>\n

Barrick Gold President and CEO Mark Bristow said the proposed investment was further evidence of the joint venture partners\u2019 long-term commitment to the social and economic development of the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

Barrick shares eased 0.94% or 15 cents to $15.78 on volume of 1.9 million Tuesday May 28.\u00a0 The shares trade in a 52-week range of $12.54 and $19.49.<\/p>\n

Barrick holds a 60% interest in Pueblo Viejo, which is located approximately 100 km northwest of the capital city of Santo Domingo. The other 40% is owned by its joint venture partner Newmont Goldcorp<\/strong> [NGT-TSX; NEM-NYSE].<\/p>\n

Development of the project started in 2009 and the first production occurred in 2012.<\/p>\n

The mine is expected to produce between 550,000 and 600,000 ounces this year at an all-in-sustaining cost of US$610-US$650 an ounce.<\/p>\n

In 2018, it produced 581,000 ounces of gold at an all-in-sustaining cost of US$623 an ounce.<\/p>\n

Bristow noted that the joint venture partners have already invested US$5.2 billion in Pueblo Viejo, which represents almost 20% of the total foreign direct investment in the Dominican Republic over the past 10 years. Direct cash taxes paid by the mine amounted to US$1.6 billion, which represents 57% of the cash distributions compared to 43% earned by the joint venture partners.<\/p>\n

Since 2013, the mine has accounted for 30% of the country\u2019s exports, and generated a net added value of US$5.7 billion and a total net added value of US$8.5 billion, equal to 2% of the Dominican gross domestic product.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome 96% of the mine\u2019s employees are Dominicans and this has also had a significant impact on the lives of more than 90,000 people in the neighbouring communities who have benefited from its community upliftment programs,\u201d Bristow said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has also promoted the development of the local economy, spending more than $123 million with local contractors and suppliers over the past six years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pueblo Viejo consists of two open pits, Moore and Monte Negro, and is mined by conventional truck and shovel methods. The processing plant has a design capacity of 24,000 tonnes per day and the average processing rate in 2017 was 21,875 tonnes per day.<\/p>\n

The earliest records of Spanish mine workings at Pueblo Viejo date back to 1505.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barrick Gold Corp. [ABX-TSX; GOLD-NYSE] is proposing an expansion of the processing plant and tailings…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[622],"tags":[48],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118220"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1118220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1118221,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118220\/revisions\/1118221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1118220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1118220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1118220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}