Grade is king again: Bulyanhulu - the hub of Barrick's district development program in Tanzania

摘要

Gold mines that can provide good returns in any environment-even a hostile one in which prices hover at 20-year lows-are few and far between. The new Bulyanhulu operation in Tanzania's Lake Victoria district fits that criterion, though its potential wasn't immediately obvious in the 1990s, when Sutton Resources Ltd. was attempting to vend the advanced underground deposit to a senior partner. Majors came, saw and went, with the exception of Barrick, which looked beyond the reserve of about 3.6 million ounces gold outlined at the time, and beyond the poor infrastructure, lack of trained miners, and daunting health and social challenges. The company saw a high-grade core property in an Archean greenstone belt not unlike Canada's Abitibi camp, but one less explored, with obvious potential for major discoveries. Barrick shelled out US