Barrick finds two new gold zones in Nevada

As Barrick Gold (ABX-T, ABX-N) continues to step up its exploration efforts at Cortez, Turquoise Ridge and Ruby Hill projects in Nevada, it has uncovered two new gold discoveries.

The discoveries known as Red Hill and Goldrush were made on the company’s wholly owned Cortez property, which covers 2,800 sq. km of the highly prospective Carlin Trend. The two deposits are located 6 km southeast of the Cortez Hill mine and 24 km southeast of the Pipeline mine.

After conducting wide-spaced drilling in the area, Barrick outlined the two gold zones along a 7-km long trend.

“Our exploration team was able to draw on deep knowledge and expertise of Carlin-style systems to identify the concealed Red Hill and Goldrush deposits,” said Rob Krcmarov, Barrick’s senior vice-president of exploration, in a press release.

The gold producer initially started poking around Red Hill to test for deeper sulphide mineralization when it came across a favourable carbonate stratigraphy. It then delineated an inferred resource of 3.5 million gold oz. from 28.7 million tons grading 0.12 oz. per ton gold at Red Hill. The deposit, which remains open in all directions, is currently undergoing an in-fill and extension drill program to enhance resources.

Some 2 km south of Red Hill, Barrick hit 0.89 oz. per ton gold over 67.2 ft. (20.5 metres). After following up on the intercept, it labelled the new mineralized zone as Goldrush.

Red Hill and Gold Rush are similar in geology to the company’s Cortez Hills and Goldstrike mines, also in Nevada. The new zones’ mineralization is hosted in a carbonate unit and has a tabular geometry. The company notes that most of the mineralization found to date at the zones is refractory, sitting between 150 and 500 metres depth.

Barrick has budgeted US$370- to $390-million for exploration this year, of which US$26 million is going towards defining the extent of the two new zones and to test the gap between the discoveries through in-fill and step out drilling.

So far, the company has completed 160,000 ft. (48,765 metres) of the 264,000-ft. (80,467-metre) program on Red Hill and Gold Rush.

While both of the zones remain open in all directions, Krcmarov conceded more work needs to be done, before adding “these discoveries have the potential to become truly world-class deposits.” 

While the miner continues drilling, it is also completing a prefeasibility study at its 75%-owned Turquoise Ridge project, where Newmont Mining (NMC-T, NEM-N) holds the rest. Barrick has billed the 4.2-million-oz. deposit as one of its “next generation” projects. The study is expected to be done late next year.

Barrick’s other Nevada gold assets include: the Bald Mountain mine, 110 km southeast of Elko; the 33%-owned Marigold mine with Newmont Mining holding the rest, 64 km southeast of Winnemucca; and the 50-50 joint-venture Round Mountain project with Kinross Gold (K-T, KGC-N), 96 km north of Tonopah in Nye Cty.