Lagunas Norte

Overview

Lagunas Norte is located on the Alto Chicama property in north-central Peru, 140 kilometres east of the coastal city of Trujillo, and 175 kilometres north of Barrick’s Pierina mine. The property lies on the western flank of the Peruvian Andes and is at an elevation of 4,000 to 4,260 metres above sea level. The Lagunas Norte mine is an open-pit, crush, valley-fill heap leach operation.

Lagunas Norte is Barrick’s lowest cost operation and in 2010, the mine produced 808,000 ounces of gold at total cash costs of $182 per ounce. Proven and probable gold reserves as of December 31, 2010 was 6.6 million ounces.

Location

Lagunas Norte is located on the Alto Chicama property in north-central Peru, 140 kilometres east of the coastal city of Trujillo, and 175 kilometres north of Barrick’s Pierina mine. The property lies on the western flank of the Peruvian Andes and is at an elevation of 4,000 to 4,260 metres above sea level

Geology and Mineralization

The mineralization is disseminated and hosted in volcanic and sedimentary rocks (breccias and tuffs). The deposit is exposed at surface and is currently defined over a strike length of 1,600 metres oriented in a northwest/southeast direction and a width of 750 metres. The mineralization is generally flat-lying and extends up to 300 metres in depth. The resource remains open to the south and southeast (Oct/02).

The mineralization is disseminated and is hosted in volcanic and sedimentary breccias and tuffs. The deposit is of the high sulfidation type and is similar in style to the mineralization at Pierina mine.

Most of the Lagunas Norte mineralization is contained in oxide breccias with about 15% occurring in sulphide breccias. The mineralization occurs at surface, is generally flat-lying and extends up to 300 metres depth in some areas. The mineralization is controlled by lithology as well as structure (Oct/02).

Mining & Operation

The Lagunas Norte project is being built as an open pit mine and heap leaching operation, using equipment, facilities and processes which have been proven in similar commercial applications throughout the world, including at Barrick’s Pierina mine.

Processing

 crush, valley-fill heap leach

Environment & Community

N.A.