NewsWhore
05-30-2011, 02:30 PM
Barrick Gold is still assessing the damage at its Pueblo Viejo project in the Dominican Republic after unusually heavy rainfall earlier this week, but indicated that the project may not start up in the first quarter of 2012 as previously planned, as reported in Mining Weekly.
Local newspapers reported that evacuated residents have returned to their homes as the company continued to alleviate a build-up of rainwater that damaged the Pueblo Viejo tailings facility, which is still under construction and has not yet reached its full storage capacity.
Barrick is the operator of the project and owns 60%, while Vancouver-based Goldcorp holds the other 40%.
Barrick evacuated most of the workers on site because of the heavy rains in the area, which received about 217mm over 48 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, the company said.
There were no injuries and only the tailings facility suffered damage n the rest of the project, including a number of facilities under construction, was unaffected by the storm.
Barrick said the rain is expected to affect the start-up schedule at Pueblo Viejo.
A process is under way to assess the damage to the tailings facility and the impact to both the construction timeline and the preproduction capital budget.
The project cost estimate has already been raised this year, to between $3,3-billion and $3,5-billion, reflecting cost pressures on the project budget.
Pueblo Viejo is expected to produce an average of between 1,04-million and 1,13-million ounces of gold a year for the first five full years of operations, at total cash costs of $250/oz to $275/oz.
www.miningweekly.com/article/rain-damage-to-delay-pueblo-viejo-start-up-barrick-2011-05-27 (http://www.miningweekly.com/article/rain-damage-to-delay-pueblo-viejo-start-up-barrick-2011-05-27)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)
Local newspapers reported that evacuated residents have returned to their homes as the company continued to alleviate a build-up of rainwater that damaged the Pueblo Viejo tailings facility, which is still under construction and has not yet reached its full storage capacity.
Barrick is the operator of the project and owns 60%, while Vancouver-based Goldcorp holds the other 40%.
Barrick evacuated most of the workers on site because of the heavy rains in the area, which received about 217mm over 48 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, the company said.
There were no injuries and only the tailings facility suffered damage n the rest of the project, including a number of facilities under construction, was unaffected by the storm.
Barrick said the rain is expected to affect the start-up schedule at Pueblo Viejo.
A process is under way to assess the damage to the tailings facility and the impact to both the construction timeline and the preproduction capital budget.
The project cost estimate has already been raised this year, to between $3,3-billion and $3,5-billion, reflecting cost pressures on the project budget.
Pueblo Viejo is expected to produce an average of between 1,04-million and 1,13-million ounces of gold a year for the first five full years of operations, at total cash costs of $250/oz to $275/oz.
www.miningweekly.com/article/rain-damage-to-delay-pueblo-viejo-start-up-barrick-2011-05-27 (http://www.miningweekly.com/article/rain-damage-to-delay-pueblo-viejo-start-up-barrick-2011-05-27)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)