NEVADA — Barrick explores Bullfrog gold mine

A $600,000 exploration program by Barrick Gold (ABX-T) will focus on discovering and developing gold deposits near the company’s Bullfrog gold mine, 3 miles southwest of Beatty and 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Barrick acquired its 28,000-Acre land package in the historic mining district through its 1994 takeover of Lac Minerals.

While the original Bullfrog open-pit mine was mined out at the end of 1994, ore will continue to be mined from a smaller satellite pit,

Montgomery-Shoshone, at least until the middle of this year.

The main operations are now primarily underground, with access provided by three portals within the completed Bullfrog pit. The underground operation produced at a daily rate of 1,480 tons last year. Production increased 15% over 1995 levels to 205,268 oz. at a cash operating cost of US$281 per oz.

This year, Bullfrog is expected to produce 179,000 oz. at a cost of US$295 per oz. The higher cost is attributed to a greater reliance on lower-grade, stockpiled ore.

The ore is processed in a conventional carbon-in-leach milling circuit.

Gold mineralization at Bullfrog occurs within veins, vein breccias, and stockworks of quartz and calcite developed along north-striking, generally west-dipping faults that have displaced and rotated the region’s host rocks, a sequence of Miocene volcanics and volcaniclastics.

Meanwhile, Barrick projects that its share of production at the Pinson gold mine, another Nevada operation, will be 21,000 oz. this year. Situated in the Carlin trend, the mine is operated by joint-Venture partner Homestake Mining (HM-N).