Cortez

The Cortez mine is located 100 kilometres southwest of Elko, Nevada in Lander County. The Cortez Pipeline property is 11 kilometres northwest and the Cortez Pediment property (which includes the Cortez Hills deposit) is 4 kilometres southeast of the original Cortez milling complex. The Pipeline and South Pipeline deposits are mined by conventional open-pit methods. The Cortez property covers approximately 2,800 square kilometres on one of the world’s most highly prospective mineral trends.

Cortez employs three different metallurgical processes to recover gold. Lower-grade oxide ore is heap leached, while higher-grade non-refractory ore is treated in a conventional mill using cyanidation and a carbon-in-leach (“CIL”) process. Heap leached ore is hauled directly to leach pads for gold recovery. Carbonaceous mill ore is mined intermittently during the mining of the Pipeline/South Pipeline deposits. The Cortez Hills underground mine is accessed by twin declines portaled in the old Cortez Gold F canyon pit. The breccia ore zone employs underhand cut and fill mining methods with cemented rock fill as backfill. The top cut of the underground mine will eventually be the bottom bench of the Cortez Hills open pit.

In 2010, the expanded Cortez operation produced 1.14 million ounces of gold at total cash costs of $312 per ounce¹. Production at Cortez exceeded its original guidance range of 1.08-1.12 million ounces, and increased by 120% over 2009, mainly as a result of the commencement of production at the Cortez Hills open pit operations. The Company’s proven and probable mineral reserves as of December 31, 2010 was 14.5 million ounces of gold². Cortez Hills was completed in line with its pre-production capital budget and entered production in early 2010, becoming the seventh project in five years that Barrick has delivered on time.

The federal Bureau of Land Management issued a Record of Decision (ROD) on March 15, 2011, approving the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Cortez Hills mine. Cortez Hills has been operating under a tailored injunction granted by the U.S. District Court since April 2010. The injunction allowed mining to continue subject to certain restrictions on ore transportation and dewatering pending completion of the SEIS, which was finalized in January. The Record of Decision removes these restrictions and enables the operation to immediately revert to its original scope.

Read more about Cortez in Barrick's responsible mining magazine Beyond Borders.

1. Click here for more information regarding the calculation of total cash costs.
2. Click here for more information regarding reserve and resource measurements.