Operating muscle at Nevada Gold Mines has been beefed up with the ahead-of-schedule commissioning of the first seven of a new 22-unit Komatsu 930E fleet due this year. With the completion of major maintenance shutdowns at NGM, and a significantly improved performance from Carlin, the focus on driving flexibility and reducing production risk has intensified.
NGM Chairman Mark Bristow says while the superb quality of the complex’s assets and its enormous untapped potential make Nevada the value foundation on which operator and majority shareholder Barrick is growing its business, it has processing constraints which need to be overcome by boosting operational flexibility.
“We see at each of the three Tier One assets (Carlin, Cortez and Turquoise Ridge) multiple opportunities to strengthen the life of mine with near-mine growth using the current infrastructure in the midterm (Leeville, Ren), new projects that can extend the use of the processing facilities (Robertson), and a long-term portfolio targeting significant brownfields and greenfields (Fourmile, Turquoise Ridge Underground) to sustain current production past the 15-year window.”
“We’re planning to achieve this by increasing processing and mining run times, stepping up development at all the underground mines, improving and standardising maintenance management, identifying and implementing efficiency initiatives, and tightening control of compliance with mine plans,” he says.
“Barrick’s mantra is that the best assets need to be managed by the best people so there’s been an equally strong focus on building a management team and a workforce with the skills and orientation required to make the most of the world’s largest gold mining complex. In this regard, it’s worth noting that the training centre we established at NGM has already produced more than 170 frontline and support staff graduates.”
During the past quarter, NGM’s operating muscle was beefed up with the ahead-of-schedule commissioning of the first seven of a new 22-unit Komatsu 930E fleet due this year. The rest of a total of 62 are due to be commissioned over the next three years.
