Overview -

Keywords   USA   gold   open pit   underground

The Goldstrike Property is located in Eureka County, Nevada and covers approximately 9,921 acres. The property consists of the Betze-Post open pit mine and the Meikle and Rodeo undground mines. For the last decade, Goldstrike has produced about 2 million ounces of gold and is still Barrick's largest producer.

Goldstrike is Barrick's largest producer . . .

The property was first mined in 1976; the Post deposit was discovered in 1982. The Betze deposit was discovered in 1987 soon after Barrick bought the Goldstrike Property. The Meikle and Rodeo orebodies currently make up Goldstrike underground, a high-grade orebody that was discovered in 1989 and began production in 1996. The underground and open pit mines are a mile apart.

The open pit mine is a truck-and-shovel operation using advanced mining equipment. Since the mine began production it has produced over 20 million ounces of gold. The underground mine is a trackless operation, using both long-hole open stoping and drift-and-fill mining methods.

Processing facilities consist of an autoclave and a roaster with a combined design capacity of 33,000 to 35,000 tons per day. Gold is processed into doré on site and shipped to an outside refinery for processing into gold bullion.

The open pit mine

Ownership Summary  Name: Barrick Gold Corp.    Interest: 100%    Note: public Reference: 31 Dec 2005

has existing reserves of 16-million ounces and an expected minimum mine life of about 16 years. The Meikle and Rodeo orebodies have reserves of almost 3-million ounces and an expected remaining mine life of about five years.

Goldstrike has 1,600 employees and 200 contractors on site.

Location - Goldstrike is located in Elko and Eureka Counties in north central Nevada, approximately 25 miles north of the Town of Carlin. It is in the Tuscarora Mountains at an elevation of 1,700 meters. The major industry in the area is mining.

Carlin has a population of about 2500 people. It is the oldest community in Elko County, in the Humbolt River valley. In the 19th century this valley was on the route for emigrants heading west to California, then heading east from California to look for gold in Nevada. Now the area attracts visitors to its vast unspoiled wilderness to go hunting, rock hounding, hiking, dirt bike riding, and exploring old mining towns.

Summers are warm and dry (temperatures from the 70s to over 100°F) and winters relatively dry and cold (sub-zero to mid-20s°F). There is about 10 inches of rain and 40 inches of snow annually.

Interstate 80 passes through Carlin. Driving distances are 25 miles to Elko, 270 miles to Reno, 405 miles to Sacramento, 250 miles to Salt Lake City, and 490 miles to San Francisco. There is a regional airport in Elko.

Location Summary Nearest Landmark: CARLIN Distance from Landmark: 42km Direction from Landmark: NORTH Latitude: 40 deg 57 min N Longitude: 116 deg 22 min W Satellite Image: <click to view>

Amtrak runs a train service: the delightfully-named California Zephyr runs daily between Chicago and San Francisco, stopping at Elko. It has been described as one of the most beautiful train trips in North America.

Property - The Goldstrike property is approximately 4,197 hectares of surface rights (3,420 hectares of private land and 778 hectares of public land), and 3,535 hectares of mineral rights (2,741 hectares of private land and 794 hectares of public land). There are a total of 298 unpatented mining and mill site claims to control the public acreage.

Gold in Nevada is widely dispersed and normally found in the upper and lower plates. The upper plate typically hosts low-grade gold deposits and large, multi-million ounce deposits are found in the lower plate.

The favored host for gold mineralization is the Popovich limestone, followed by the Rodeo Creek unit, Goldstrike sill complex and Roberts Mountains Formation. Some ore occurs below sills, which act as dams to the ascending hydrothermal fluids. Alteration is characterized by decalcification of limestone, silicification of all rock types, and clay development in structurally disturbed areas.

Reserves Summary Name: Goldstrike Commodity: gold Class: Proven + Probable Tonnage: 121.831 Mtons Grade: 0.143 oz/ton Note: Annual Report 2005 Reference: 31 Dec 2004

Overall, the Betze-Post ore zones extend for 6,000 feet (1,829 meters) in a northwest direction and averages 600 to 800 feet (183 to 244 meters) in width and 400 to 600 feet (122 to 183 meters) in thickness.

The Meikle orebody is compact and very high grade. The fluids have been focused below a steep dipping monzonite porphyry dyke and the Rodeo Creek member. The ore is quite hard and competent.

Deposit Summary Deposit Type: Open-pit and Underground Primary Commodity: gold

In 2005, exploration and development drilling programs focused on the North Post underground target and exploring for new resources to the north and south of the pit, along the Post fault zone corridor and under the Goldstrike stock.

Operation - The open pit mine is a truck-and-shovel operation which produced 1,514,000 ounces of gold in 2005. It has two sulphide ore zones (the Betze and Deep Post deposits). More than 6,500 drill holes have been completed within and around the Betze-Post deposit.

Drill spacing through the Betze, West Betze and Screamer deposits is approximately 53 meters and at Post is 46 meters. Drill spacing in the North Screamer and West Barrel deposits is approximately 30 meters. Almost all of the total drill hole footage has been sampled on 1.5-meter intervals and assayed for gold.

The Meikle mine, located 1.6 kilometers north of the open pit, is a high-grade ore body. It incorporates the Main Meikle, Meikle Extension, South Meikle and Griffin underground zones. Goldstrike Underground produced approximately 510,000 ounces of gold in 2005.

Mine Production Summary  Mine - Goldstrike    Capacity: unknown     Rate: 131.1 Mtons/y    Note: Annual Report 2005 Reference: 31 Dec 2005

In 2005, mining activity took place in five main areas, Main Meikle, Meikle Extension, South Meikle, Griffin and Rodeo. A total of 356,837 meters in 5,350 underground holes had been completed in and around the deposit as of December 31, 2005. A total of 338 surface holes, for 157,608 meters, have been drilled in and around the Meikle deposit.

A total of 2,041 underground holes totaling 161,267 meters had been drilled in and around the Rodeo deposit (Rodeo, West Rodeo, and Barrel). A total of 230 surface holes, for 104,943 meters, have been drilled in and around the Rodeo deposit.

In 2005, the Goldstrike Property produced 2,024,000 ounces of gold at average total cash costs of $255 per ounce.

Process - Goldstrike has two processing facilities: an autoclave installation, which treats non-carbonaceous sulphide (refractory) ore; and a roaster to treat carbonaceous ore, because its active carbon content responds poorly to autoclaving.

The combined design capacity of these two facilities is approximately 33,000 to 35,000 tons per day. These process facilities treat the ore from both the Goldstrike Open Pit and Goldstrike Underground mines.

The Pressure Oxidation plant (part of the Autoclave Facility) consists of six autoclaves that process slurry and the oxygen plant (operated by Air Liquide) that provides the oxygen for the autoclaves. All of the six autoclaves have five internal compartments with critical temperature control.

Processing Summary  Facility - Goldstrike    Capacity: 35,000 tons/day    Rate: 11.6 Mton/y    Note: Annual Report 2005  Product    Commodity: Gold    Quantity: 2,024,000 oz    Cost: US$255/oz     Note: Annual Report 2005 Reference: 31 Dec 2005

The process is supplied with steam in the first two compartments, then the exothermic reaction due to the sulphides in the ore maintains heat in subsequent compartments.

Heat recovery from the slurry exiting the autoclaves is accomplished by using staged pressure flashing. Steam heats the slurry before it enters the autoclaves. The heat exchange is done in a direct-contact countercurrent inside splash towers.

The roaster uses a dry grinding process and Freeport McMoran roaster technology to handle 12 million ounces of carbonaceous ores. The plant also has a dry grinding circuit, a carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuit, gas scrubbers, and a stand-alone low-pressure oxygen plant.

Environment and Community - Goldstrike has developed a number of stewardship programs to protect animals from the hazards of mining and mitigate impact on habitat around the mine site. The mine has been involved in Sage Grouse habitat enhancement and Mule Deer management programs and manages 1,000 hectares of bio-diverse upland and riparian habitat.

When disturbed land is no longer required for the mining process it is reclaimed by re-contouring and re-vegetating the area. By the end of 2004, Goldstrike had reclaimed a total of 310 hectares of land previously disturbed by mining activities.