Australia Pacific

Barrick’s Australia Pacific region is headquartered in Perth, Western Australia and comprises 10 operating mines: its 50% interest in the Kalgoorlie mine; the Kanowna, Granny Smith, Plutonic, Darlot and Lawlers gold mines in Western Australia; the Cowal gold mine in New South Wales; the Henty gold mine in Tasmania; the Osborne copper-gold mine in Queensland; and the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea.

In 2007 Barrick purchased a large, highly prospective exploration package and the Kainantu property in Papua New Guinea. With these assets Barrick has access to over 5,300 square kilometers of contiguous ground for exploration in one of the world's most highly endowed, under-explored gold and copper regions.

The Australia Pacific region contains 20.8 million ounces of proven and probable gold reserves, which represents 17% of the Company's total reserve base at the end of 2007 ¹. The region produced 2.1 million ounces of gold at total cash costs of $452 per ounce and 87 million pounds of copper at total cash costs of $1.37 per pound in 2007. Guidance for 2008 is 1.9 to 1.975 million ounces of gold at total cash costs of $515-$535 per ounce and 65 to 75 million pounds of copper at total cash costs of approximately $1.60 to $1.65 per pound ².

A significant project in Barrick’s Australia Pacific region is Reko Diq, a large copper-gold porphyry mineral resource on the Tethyan belt, located in southwest Pakistan in the province of Baluchistan.  The Tethyan belt is a prospective ground for large copper-gold porphyries.  At Reko Diq, the drill program continued in fourth quarter 2007 with a feasibility study scheduled for completion in early 2009.

¹ Click here for more information regarding reserve and resource measurements..

² Click here for more information regarding the calculation of total cash cost.