 TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold-miners Barrick Gold and Kinross Gold have completed a draft feasibility study on their Cerro Casale project, in Chile, but there is still some work to be done to improve the economics of the project, Barrick CEO Aaron Regent said on Thursday.
“We intend to spend the next few months reviewing various options to further optimise the project,” Regent said on a conference call.
“There are some opportunities we see to improve on what we have right now.”
The company will be in a position to provide a clear way forward on Cerro Casale when it reports results for the fourth quarter, early next year, he said.
In March this year, Barrick and Kinross filed a technical report based on a prefeasibility study for the project, which included a big jump in the capital cost estimate to build the mine, to $3,65-billion, compared with a 2006 forecast of $2-billion.
Also in Chile, Barrick announced earlier this month it will buy 70% of the El Morro project from Xstrata for $465-million.
The sale is only scheduled to close in January 2010, so Regent was reluctant to comment on the company's plans for the project, but said that it will also be looking to optimise that feasibility study.
Barrick formally started construction this month on its Pascua Lama project, on the border of Chile and Argentina, and is also building the Pueblo Viejo mine, that it owns with Goldcorp, in the Dominican Republic.
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