September 17, 2019
Nearly one year to the day that Barrick Gold announced its merger with Randgold Resources at the Denver Gold Forum, Barrick president and chief executive officer Mark Bristow returned to the conference to provide an update what has happened in the past year and to announce a new discovery in Nevada.
Speaking to a full room at the Hyatt Regency in Denver, CO as part of the Denver Gold Forum Americas conference, Bristow said Nevada Gold Mines, the joint venture formed in 2019 between Barrick and Newmont Goldcorp Corp., could be adding another tier one mine to its portfolio. Bristow announced a new discovery hole 2 km (1 mile) from the best ever drilling intercept at the Fourmile Project in Nevada.
“We are very excited about this discovery,” Bristow said. “Goldrush Fourmile is one mile from our recent Cortez Mine expansion and I have no doubt that we are going to find more discoveries like these.”
In a release, the company said Barrick did not include Fourmile in the recent combination of its Nevada assets with those of Newmont Goldcorp to create the Nevada Gold Mines joint venture, but has the right to bring it into the joint venture for full market value provided certain agreed investment criteria are met.
Bristow said diligent exploration and detailed geological modelling had led to effective targeting at Fourmile. The intercept is of a new orebody 1 km north of Fourmile. It increases the strike length of the mineralized Goldrush-Fourmile trend to more than 6 km. Mineralization is open in all directions and significant resource growth is expected from continuing the step-out drilling program.
“Discovery is fundamental to value creation and the latest results from Fourmile confirm the potential for further high-value discoveries in the greater Cortez – Carlin region which has been a prolific source of gold discovery and production for 150 years, and still holds an untapped wealth of geological endowment,” Bristow said.
Since the merger a year earlier, Bristow said the business was generating significantly higher profits and free cash flows as it is supported by six profitable Tier 1 assets with tangible prospects for future value creation, and Barrick now boasts one of the strongest balance sheets among its industry peers.
“We’re well positioned to achieve our targets for the year. Production is trending toward the top end of the 5.1 to 5.6-million-ounce guidance range while costs are likely to be at the lower end of the cost forecasts. The market is starting to recognize and reward this performance, and it’s worth noting that the Barrick share price has increased by 90 percent since the Randgold deal announcement a year ago, outstripping the GDX index and the spot gold price by a wide margin,” he said.
“Our aim is to make the Barrick brand synonymous with value creation. That value will be generated by its existing Top Tier operational base of long-life mines, located within world-class geological provinces and run by management teams that can unlock and bring to account opportunities where others have failed,” he said.
“But there is also a lot more to be done, notably in Latin America and Tanzania, and you can be sure that we remain unrelenting in our quest to be the industry leader in value creation and delivery.”
Bristow also noted that Barrick’s acquisition of the Acacia minorities’ shareholding had closed on the same day and it could now proceed unfettered to address the issues that had previously plagued the company.
Source : me.smenet.org