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Barrick Gold and the Mine at the Top of the World | |
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|The world’s largest gold mining company, Toronto-based Barrick Gold,   |completed. In May of 2011 its North Mara mine in Tanzania was also the |
|operates massive mines--many open pit--in many countries around the     |site of clashes between police and a crowd of hundreds trying to steal |
|world.   For 2010, Barrick Gold reported record net profit of $3.3       |from the mine—this ended in seven deaths.   These recent allegations     |
|billion, up from $1.8 billion in 2009.   The strong price of gold       |mobilized Barrick to take a close look at its operations and to         |
|contributed greatly to this.                                           |implement an intention to get to the bottom of them.                   |
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|In 2011, Barrick’s major developmental project was a massive new mine   |Barrick already had an operating gold mine very close to the           |
|at the peak of the Andes range separating Chile from Argentina.   The   |Pascua-Lama project.   From its Veladero mine, located in Argentina     |
|Pascua-Lama development involved a territory the size of Ireland that   |immediately to the south of the Pascua-Lama property at elevations of   |
|locals on both sides of the border referred to as “Barrickland,” and   |between 3000 and 3800 metres, Barrick produced 1.1 million ounces of   |
|was the object of much controversy in both Chile and Argentina.   While |gold at reported cash costs of $256 per ounce.   Reserves for that mine |
|critics claimed mining in such regions had historically done little for|were reported as 11.3 million ounces of gold as of the end of 2010.   In|
|local economies, they also...