Barrick CEO meets with Bachelet regarding Pascua Lama

Monday, Apr 27, 2009

Canadian miner Barrick Gold's (NYSE: ABX) CEO Aaron Regent met with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet Thursday (Apr 23) to discuss ways to advance the company's Pascua Lama project on the border with Argentina.

"The meetings were part of our ongoing program to meet, discuss issues and update officials in both Chile and Argentina about our investments, operations and projects such as Pascua Lama," Barrick spokesperson Vincent Borg told BNamericas via email.

Barrick, the world's largest yellow metal producer, said it will update the market on Pascua Lama's progress sometime in the second quarter.

The project has been held up due to differences between the governments of Chile and Argentina on fiscal issues such as taxes. The company has said it will not start construction until the issues are resolved.

The mine is slated to produce 750,000-775,000oz/y gold and 35Moz/y silver during its first five years at a cash cost of US$40-50/oz of gold, with a capex of US$ 2.3 billion-2.4 billion, according to the company's latest estimate.