Overview -
The Veladero Property is located in the Frontera District that straddles the border between Argentina and Chile, in San Juan Province, Argentina. The project site is located at elevations between 4,000 and 4,850 meters above sea level.
The mine was discovered in 1997, development began in 2002, and production began in 2005. Capital construction costs for the mine were $547 million. In 2005, the mine produced 56,000 ounces of gold and is expected to produce 700,000 ounces per year in 2006 through 2008. The minimum mine life is expected to be 16 years.
Barrick has a 3,000 km
2 land position in the Frontera District, with 30 million ounces of gold in proven and probable reserves. Veladero has 130 km
2 and proven and probable gold reserves of 12.8 million ounces.
Veladero is an open pit mine currently producing ore from 2 pits. A two-stage crushing process will be followed by a valley-fill heap leach operation and processing in the Merrill-Crowe recovery plant adjacent to heap leach pad. Recovered gold will be smelted into doré on site and shipped to an outside refinery for processing into bullion.
Veladero pays a net smelter return (NSR) royalty of 3.75% on extraction of all gold, silver and other minerals to San Juan province.
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