Goldstrike Property
Goldstrike has been Barrick’s flagship property for more than 20 years. Goldstrike is located on the Carlin Trend, the most prolific gold mining district in the Western Hemisphere, about 60 kilometers northwest of Elko, Nevada, USA. The Goldstrike operations include the Betze-Post open pit and the Meikle and Rodeo underground mines. Goldstrike remains the Company’s largest gold producer.
The Betze-Post pit is a truck-and-shovel operation using large electric shovels.
The Meikle and Rodeo underground mines are located just north of the Betze-Post pit, along the same mineralized trend as the surface deposits. Meikle is a high-grade orebody that was discovered in 1989 and entered production in September 1996 using tranverse longhole stoping and underhand drift and fill mining methods. Rodeo is a further extension of the mineralization found at Goldstrike. It is a trackless operation, using two different underground mining methods: long-hole open stoping and drift-and-fill.
Responsible Cyanide Management
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The Goldstrike Property has two world-class processing facilities: an autoclave circuit, which is used to treat the property’s non-carbonaceous sulfide (refractory) ore; and the roaster, which is used to treat the property’s carbonaceous ore (whose active carbon content responds poorly to autoclaving). These facilities treat the ore from both the surface and underground operations. During 2007, a modified pressure leaching technology was successfully tested that will extend the life of the Goldstrike autoclaves by allowing them to process ore that would previously have been treated at the roaster facility.
In 2007, the Goldstrike Property produced 1.63 million ounces of gold at average total cash costs of $373 per ounce1. Goldstrike’s proven and probable mineral reserves as of December 31, 2007 are estimated at 14.9 million ounces of gold2.
In 2008, the Goldstrike Property is expected to produce 1.66 to 1.72 million ounces of gold at average total costs of $410 to $420 per ounce
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