Newmont boosts reserves

After all the calculations were done, Newmont Gold (NYSE) found it had increased its total reserves and mineralized resources by 12% for 1994.

Most of this increase stems from an expansion of mineralized resources. However, proven and probable reserves moved up to 26.1 million oz. gold in 1994 from 26 million oz. in 1993. The mineralized resources grew to 30.2 million oz. (not yet classified as reserves) from 24.4 million oz. at the end of 1993.

At Carlin, reserves increased to 18.5 million from 17.8 million oz. Gold-mineralized material also increased, to 14.2 million oz. from 12.4 million. Depletion at Carlin totalled 2.2 million oz. in 1994. In Peru, gold reserves at Yanacocha increased to 4 million from 3.8 million oz. between year-end 1994 and year-end 1993, while mineralized resources were unchanged.

In the Minahasa area of Indonesia, mineralized resources were upgraded to reserves. Mine development, now under way, has increased reserves to 2.1 million oz. gold from 1.8 million oz. Meanwhile, definition of the orebody at Batu Hijau has resulted in mineralized resources rising to 14.7 million oz. gold from 12.6 million oz. Batu Hijau also contains about 27.6 million oz. silver and 11.2 billion lb. copper.

The reserve calculations reflect the company’s intention to process low-grade ore by means of bioleaching. Towards this end, it is operating a million-ton demonstration project outside the Gold Quarry mine in Nevada. At the Grassy Mountain gold-silver property in Oregon, reserves were reclassified as mineralized material after the geologic model proved inadequate for mine development.

La Herradura and Mezcala, two new gold ventures in Mexico undergoing prefeasibility studies, added to the total amount of mineralized material in 1994. Newmont has a 44% interest in both projects, which together contain an estimated 3.5 million oz. of resources.