*******OT*********
Barrick says ups Chile's Pascua gold find reserves
Reuters Story - February 27, 1998 18:10
%GOL %GDM %LATAM %LDC %AR %MET %CA ABX.TO V%REUTER P%RTR
By Tiffany Woods
SANTIAGO, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Canada's Barrick Gold Corp
has increased the reserves on its Pascua gold project
in northern Chile, a company official said on Friday.
The firm increased its proven and estimated reserves to
11.2 million ounces of gold from 10 million ounces, Vincent
Borg, vice president of corporate communications, told Reuters.
Its silver reserves stand at 335 million ounces, and it has
another six million ounces of geological resources, he said.
Barrick has doubled Pascua's production estimate to 800,000
ounces of gold equivalent a year and forecasts cash costs of
$190 per ounce, down from an earlier estimate of $240, he said.
It is tentatively expected to start producing in 2001.
Barrick has no plans to slow or stop the project despite the
low price of gold, Borg said.
Construction on the road to the deposit is underway and
expected to be completed in August, he said, adding that
Barrick will submit the environmental impact study in the third
quarter of this year.
The Pascua project is about 310 miles (500 km) north of
Santiago and has an extending ore body on the neighboring Lama
property, which spills across the border into Argentina. |
