Name: Cortez mine.

Location: The Cortez mine is located 100 km south-west of Elko, in Lander County, in the US state of Nevada.

Controlling Company: The Cortez Mine is a joint venture between two wholly owned subsidiaries of Barrick Gold – Barrick Cortez (60%) and Barrick Gold Finance (40%).

Brief History: Barrick acquired an interest in Cortez through the 2006 acquisition of Placer Dome. In March 2008, Barrick acquired its 100% interest in the project, buying the former Kennecott 40% interest from Rio Tinto.

Brief Description: The Cortez property covers about 2 800 km2 on one of the world’s most highly prospective mineral trends. The Cortez pipeline property is situated 11 km north-west of the original Cortez milling complex, while the Cortez pediment property, which includes the Cortez Hills deposit, is situated 4 km south-east of the original Cortez milling complex. The Pipeline and South Pipeline deposits are mined by conventional openpit methods.

Geology/Mineralisation: The Cortez deposits are Carlin-style sedimentary rock-hosted and porphyry/epithermal deposits. Carlin deposits form as structurally and/or stratigraphically controlled replacement bodies consisting of strata-bound, tabular, disseminated gold mineralisation occurring in Silurian-Devonian carbonate rocks. Deposits are localised at contacts between contrasting lithologies, metamorphosed to varying extents. They can also be discordant or breccia-related. The deposits are hydrothermal in origin, are usually structurally controlled and at Cortez are hosted in lower plate carbonate strata exposed by two erosional windows through allochthonous upper plate siliclastic units; the windows are on either side of Crescent valley.

Mineralisation consists mainly of submicron to micrometre-sized gold particles, very fine sulphide grains and gold in solid solution in pyrite. Gold is disseminated throughout the host rock matrix in zones of silicified and decarbonatised, argillised, silty calcareous rocks and associated jasperoids. Gold may occur around limonite pseudomorphs of authigenic pyrite and arsenopyrite. Major ore minerals include native gold, pyrite, arsenopyrite, stibnite, realgar, orpiment, cinnabar, fluorite, barite, and rare thallium minerals. Gangue minerals typically comprise fine-grained quartz, barite, clay minerals, carbonaceous matter and late-stage calcite veins. In the Cortez district, the favoured host rocks for gold mineralisation are the Wenban limestone, followed by the Horse canyon and Roberts mountain formations. Mineralisation reflects interplay between structural and lithological ore controls, in which hydrothermal solutions from intrusives moved to favourable porous decalcified limestone.

Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at December 31, 2013, were 207.71-million tons grading 0.053 g/t of gold.

Resources: Total measured resources as at December 31, 2013, were 8.03-million tons grading 0.041 g/t of gold. Indicated resources were 92.45-million tons grading 0.050 g/t of gold and inferred resources were 17.34-million tons grading 0.054 g/t of gold.

Products: Gold.

Mining Method: Openpit and underground. The openpits use a traditional truck and shovel fleet. The underground mine employs underhand drift and fill stoping in the breccia zone with cemented rock fill to provide a safe working environment.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Ore from Cortez is either processed on site in the oxide processing facilities or transported to Barrick’s Goldstrike operation for refractory ore treatment.

Cortez uses three different metallurgical processes to recover gold. Lower-grade oxide ore is heap leached, while higher-grade nonrefractory ore is treated in a conventional mill using cyanidation and a carbon-in-leach process. Heap-leached ore is hauled directly to leach pads for gold recovery.

Prospects: At Cortez Hills, drilling in the lower zone is in the final stages of a programme to upgrade and expand the resource base. The lower zone is characterised by strong and continuous ore zones. Following completion of the scoping study, a prefeasibility study to evaluate deeper mining below the currently permitted level is expected to be completed by late 2015. Below this level, the lower zone is mostly oxide and higher grade than the zones above. Drilling has yet to determine the limits of the Lower Zone and further drilling is planned for the second quarter of 2014. Results to date have met or exceeded expectations.

Contact Person: Investor relations.

Contact Details:
Barrick Gold Corporation,
tel +1 416 861 9911,
email investor@barrick.com, and
website http://www.barrick.com