Officials discuss mine closure plan

Barrick Gold Corporation Vice President for Permits and Closure Patrick Malone was a special guest at the Community Transition Advisory Committee meeting last week.

Malone discussed current work being done to update the closure plan for the Golden Sunlight Mine, and the legacy the company wants to leave in the area.

Malone said Barrick wants to be a company that local residents can not only rely on, but to make sure they have a good cradle to the grave plan for the mine.

Malone added while they are hopefully the current Apex Project will provide plenty of time for putting together a good plan, he said you can never be certain with the price of gold or permits.

Mine Manager Dan Banghart said there has been a lot of effort to extend mine life, but it is important to have a good plan in place.

CTAC member Tim Mulligan discussed a past community survey about closure at the mine, and said that the three most important things for residents would be the replacement of jobs, replacement of taxes generated from the mine, and recreational access at the site.

In other business from the meeting, Banghart reported production at the mine in January was 641 ounces. He said while that number may seem low, they had not budgeted any production for the month and did not have a mill run scheduled because of weather concerns. Banghart said they were able to get in a mill run at the end of the month.

He added it was a very good month of production underground at the site with close to 2,500 tons a day.

Banghart reported they currently have multiple exploration projects underground right now. There are 51 Barrick employees, one regional Barrick employee, and 85 contractors reporting to the site.

Mine Environmental Manager Chuck Buus told committee members he met with state about the Environmental Assessment for the APEX project. Buus said the contractor assisting them with the EA has stated the process could be completed by late this summer and they could have a record of decision from state as early as July.