Vancouver – Pinson Mining, a unit of Barrick Gold (ABX-T, ABX-N), has opted to exercise its back-in right for a 70% interest in the Pinson gold property being explored by Atna Resources (ATN-T) in Humboldt County, Nevada.
Atna presently holds a 70% interest in the past-producing gold property, but will revert to a 30% interest once Barrick spends US$30 million to meet its back-in obligation. If the senior gold producer doesn’t make the qualifying expenditures within three years, the joint venture will once again be held 70% by Atna.
Pinson is a “Carlin-type” gold system with micron-gold hosted in altered, fine-grained sedimentary rocks, situated at the northeastern end of the Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend. Previous operators produced almost 1 million oz. gold from open pits and processed the oxide mineralization using heap-leach and carbon-in-pulp extraction methods. Operations ceased in 2000 because of low metal prices and the depletion of open-pit reserves.
Since acquiring Pinson in 2004, Atna has carried out exploration programs aimed at testing deeper sulphide mineralization and discovering new oxide deposits, such as the newly discovered Ogee zone. In February of this year, the company released an updated resource estimate that boosted measured and indicated resources to 712,000 oz. contained gold from 467,000 contained oz. a year earlier. The average grade also increased to 0.42 oz. from 0.34 oz. over the same period.
President David Watkins said the US$30-million investment will “reduce risk and capital requirements” and “add value” to the project. In a prepared statement, he noted that Barrick’s decision to exercise its back-in rights “exhibits confidence” that the Pinson project has potential to satisfy the senior gold company’s operating threshold.
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