Barrick gold reserves surge by 17.4M ounces, copper reserves soar 224%

February 07, 2025 (MLN): Barrick Gold Corporation has significantly increased its attributable proven and probable gold mineral reserves by 17.4 million ounces (23%) before 2024 depletion.

The company's total gold reserves now stand at 89mn ounces at 0.99g/t, up from 77mn ounces at 1.65g/t in 2023, marking a substantial growth in its resource base.

The year-on-year change was led by the conversion of Reko Diq copper-gold resources to mineral reserves, adding 13mn ounces of gold at 0.28g/t on an attributable basis, following the completion of the feasibility study.

Significantly, before the addition of Reko Diq, Barrick delivered a fourth consecutive year of replacing annual depletion at a 4% higher grade.

This achievement highlights the company's unwavering focus on asset quality and further extends the life of its existing operations.

Since the end of 2019, Barrick has replaced more than 180% of the company’s depleted gold reserves.

It has added almost 46mn ounces of attributable proven and probable reserves (77mn ounces on a 100% basis) across Barrick-managed assets.

Attributable measured and indicated gold resources for 2024 remain consistent, at 180mn ounces at 1.06g/t, with a further 41mn ounces at 0.9g/t of inferred resources, up 5% from 2023.

At the same time, copper mineral reserves grew by 224% year-on-year on an attributable basis, at more than 13% higher grade to 18mn tonnes of copper at 0.45%, from 5.6mn tonnes of copper at 0.39% in 2023.

This resulted from the completion of the Lumwana and Reko Diq feasibility studies affirming both as Tier One6 Copper projects.

The Lumwana Super Pit Expansion feasibility study added 5.5mn tonnes of copper reserves to the project, resulting in proven and probable copper reserves of 8.3mn tonnes of copper at 0.52%.

The Reko Diq feasibility study added 7.3mn tonnes of copper at 0.48% to attributable copper reserves.

This represents an addition of more than 20mn tonnes of proven and probable copper reserves on a 100% basis since 2023.

Attributable measured and indicated copper resources for 2024 stand at 24mn tonnes of copper at 0.39%, with a further 3.9mn tonnes of copper at 0.3% of inferred resources, reflecting the conversion and upgrade of copper mineral resources at Lumwana.

For 2024, mineral reserves are based on an updated gold price assumption of $1,400/oz and a consistent copper price of $3.00/lb.

Mineral resources are reported inclusive of reserves and for 2024 are based on an updated gold price of $1,900/oz and a consistent copper price of $4.00/lb.

President and chief executive Mark Bristow said Barrick’s strategy of investing in organic growth through exploration and mineral resource management has set the company apart from its peers within the industry.

He emphasized that this approach positions Barrick as a champion for value creation as it continues to grow its production profile organically, acoording to the press release issued by Barrick.

“For our industry to help build a better world, we have to invest in our future, with transformational projects like the Lumwana Super Pit Expansion, Pueblo Viejo Expansion, Reko Diq, and Fourmile," said Bristow.

He emphasized that Barrick’s vision for these projects goes beyond mining, aiming to create multi-generational benefits for host countries and local communities through local service provider partnerships and sustainable investments in operating environments.

Mineral Resource Management and Evaluation Executive Simon Bottoms said that since the end of 2019, Barrick has successfully added 111mn ounces of attributable gold equivalent reserves.

He highlighted that this was achieved at a cost of approximately $10 per ounce, demonstrating the value proposition of the company's strategy.

The company's reserve prices of $1,400/oz for gold and $3.00/lb for copper are set to extract the optimum value from its geologically defined orebodies.

This approach ensures the highest value while highlighting the quality differentiation of its Tier One assets.

This approach is complemented by our reserve replacement strategy, where we aim to add value by delineating ore body extensions and satellites at our long-term reserve prices.

Rather than diluting the quality of our reserves, we avoid lifting reserve prices beyond the relative levels of cost inflation, said Bottoms.

Gold mineral reserves in the Africa & Middle East region, after annual depletion, grew to 19mn ounces at 3.35g/t in 2024 from 18.8mn ounces at 3.24g/t in 2023.

This was predominantly driven by both Bulyanhulu and Loulo-Gounkoto, with extensions of the high-grade Reef 2 and Yalea underground orebodies respectively, combined with the growth of the Faraba open pit.

Overall, this delivered a 2.3mn ounce increase in attributable proven and probable reserves across the region, before depletion.

North Mara also contributed to the strong results through the extension of the Gokona underground and Gena open pit.

At Kibali, the ongoing conversion drilling in the 9000 and 11000 lodes in KCD underground replaced 98% of depletion, with ongoing development to establish further underground drill platforms for 2025.

The Latin America & Asia Pacific region, led by Pueblo Viejo, replaced 115% of the regional 2024 gold reserve depletion before the addition of Reko Diq.

Reko Diq added 0.78mn ounces to attributable proven and probable reserves before depletion, due to additional pit design pushbacks unlocked by the additional TSF capacity in the new Naranjo facility.

Porgera grew attributable gold reserves by 22% year-on-year with the successful conversion of the open pit Link cutback adjacent to the West Wall cutback.

In North America, ongoing growth programs at Turquoise Ridge, Leeville Underground in Carlin, and the Reona cut-back in Phoenix added 1.54mn ounces of gold to proven and probable reserves on an attributable basis before annual depletion.

These gains were partially offset by reductions in Cortez, driven by metallurgical model updates in Crossroads and Robertson.

This resulted in attributable proven and probable mineral reserves for the region of 30mn ounces at 2.71g/t.

This represents a more than 10% increase in grade year-over-year (2.45g/t in 2023) due to high-grade growth additions and reductions of low-grade at Cortez.

At the same time, attributable gold measured and indicated mineral resources for the region now stands at 66mn ounces at 2.18g/t, due to the removal of Long Canyon mineral resources, as the site is planned to progress into full closure during 2025.

Meanwhile, attributable inferred gold mineral resources for the region grew to 21mn ounces at 3.3 g/t, driven by Fourmile’s mineral resource growth in the southernmost portion of the orebody immediately adjacent to the existing Goldrush mine.

Looking forward to 2025, Barrick plans to commence prefeasibility-study drilling at the end of the first quarter, targeting the continued extension of the Fourmile mineral resource along strike to the north.

Simultaneously, the company will complete foundational studies for the planned Bullion Hill northern access portal.

Copyright Mettis Link News