Summary

Mine Type	Open Pit
Status	Closing / Closed
Commodities	Gold Silver Copper
Mining Method	Truck & Shovel / Loader
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	On January 31, 2024, Barrick Gold presented a US$136mn project to Chile’s environmental review agency as part of its closure plan for the Pascua project in Atacama region in compliance with an order from local authorities. The project includes dismantling the partially built mining facilities and ensuring that surface and underground water flows in the upper part of the Del Estrecho river are restored to their original condition. Pascua, at some 4,000m above sea level, corresponds to the Chilean part of the Pascua-Lama gold-silver initiative that straddles the border with Argentina but has never produced an ounce of gold after delays due to environmental and other reasons, including claims the mine would damage glaciers. Exploration at Lama, in Argentina’s San Juan province, will continue. Including post-closure, the plan is due to start in mid-2026 and take nearly 10 years.

Deposit type

• Epithermal

Summary:

The Pascua-Lama property is located in the high Andean Mountains, in what has been designated as the Eastern Belt of Hydrothermal Alteration. The gold, silver, and copper mineralization and alteration assemblages at Pascua-Lama are associated with a structurally controlled acid sulfate hydrothermal system hosted by intrusive and volcanic rock sequences of Upper Paleozoic and Middle Tertiary age.

Alteration and mineralization is of the high-sulfidation, epithermal type. As is typical with high-sulfidation epithermal deposits, the principal metal commodities at Pascua-Lama are gold and silver – the copper content is usually sub-economic.

Numerous breccias bodies occur in the Esperanza, Quebrada de Pascua and Lama areas. At the surface, these breccias vary in size from outcrops measured in centimeters up to hundreds of meters. Typically the breccias show a strong correlation to zones of intersection of two or more major structural zones. Breccia Central, the large inter mineral breccia pipe, occurs in the Quebrada de Pascua area. On the surface, this breccia body is about 650 meters long and up to 250 meters in width, while underground, between 200 and 400 meters below the surface, the composite body measures about 550 meters in length and up to 130 meters in width. It extends to at least 700 meters below surface. This well mineralized breccia pipe is evidence of an explosive hydrothermal event related to the formation of the Quebrada de Pascua ore deposit. Breccia Oeste and Breccia Sur are the two large post mineralization breccias pipe complexes located in the mine area. Oriented north/south along the Breccia Oeste fault zone in the Esperanza area, the Breccia Oeste pipe measures up to 500 meters long, up to 150 meters wide, and extends up to 300 meters below surface.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Processing

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Commodity Production