Photo by: Bloomberg
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The world’s largest gold producer by volume, Barrick Gold, on Wednesday announced that it had completed a 50/50 joint venture agreement with Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma'aden) to move the long-delayed Jabal Sayid copper mine, located in the kingdom, forward, with first shipments slated for early 2016.
The Canadian gold producer on Sunday said Ma’aden would buy a 50% stake in the project for $210-million, a move that was expected to result in first output from the long-delayed mine in late 2015.
The significant copper project had been subject to major delays owing to compliance issues with the country’s safety and security standards.
The company acquired the project as part of its C$7.5-billion acquisition of Equinox in 2011. The Saudi government in 2012 notified Barrick that the $400-million project did not comply with the required safety and security measures, resulting in the company being restricted from using explosives at the mine.
According to Barrick, Equinox originally designed the safety and security system to Western Australian standards, which differ from Saudi Arabian standards, preventing operations from starting last year.
The project was expected to produce 100-million pounds of copper in its first five years of production, with the potential to lift output to 130-million pounds a year. The mine was expected to operate for up to 15 years on the basis of 1.4-billion pounds of copper in proven and probable reserves as at December 31, 2013.