Porgera Gold Mine Set to Restart Production This Month
Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD)(TSX:ABX) announced today that the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is set to resume operations later this month and is expected to start pouring gold again in the first quarter of 2024.
This follows the satisfaction of the conditions to the Porgera Project Commencement Agreement, in which a new ownership structure was agreed.
Barrick president and chief executive Mark Bristow said the reopening of the mine represented another victory for the company’s host-country partnership model which had been very successful in Tanzania and had also been adopted for its new Reko Diq copper and gold project in Pakistan.
“It’s been a long journey but in the process we have secured the buy-in of all the stakeholders and we look forward to steering the mine back to world-class production. It undoubtedly has the potential to join our Tier One1 gold mine portfolio, the largest of its kind in the industry,” he said.
The equity in New Porgera is shared 51% by PNG stakeholders, including local landowners and the Enga provincial government, and 49% by Barrick Niugini Limited (BNL), a joint venture between Barrick and Zijin of China.
BNL will operate the mine. The PNG shareholders will receive 53% of Porgera’s overall economic benefits. At an assumed gold price of $1,800 per ounce, this is expected to amount to more than $7 billion over the mine’s projected 20-year life.
Speaking at the PNG Resources & Energy Investment Conference in Sydney, Australia, today, prime minister James Marape hailed the revival of a major contributor to the country’s economy. The partnership structure gives PNG stakeholders a majority interest in a key resource for the first time.
