Barrick Gold has acquired all of the remaining common shares of Arizona Star Resource Corp, which owns a 51% interest in Cerro Casale, one of the world’s largest undeveloped gold and copper deposits. In July last year, Arizona Star envisioned the Cerro Casale project as a conventional open pit, to produce nominally 150,000 t/d from this gold-copper porphyry deposit over a 17-year mine life. Processing facilities include a 75,000 t/d cyanide heap leach facility for oxide ores and a 150,000 t/d semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill and flotation concentrator for sulphide and mixed ores.

Doré bars would be produced on site from leachate recovered from the heap and flotation cleaner tails leach circuits. Sulphide copper concentrates would be pumped to the port at Punta Padrones near Caldera via a 230 km pipeline, and shipped to smelting and refining facilities. Water for mine, mill and camp facilities would be pumped from well fields 120 km northeast of the project. 

The Cerro Casale deposit is located in Region Three of northern Chile. The city of Copiapo is 145 km to the northwest. The international border separating Chile and Argentina is approximately 20 km to the east. The deposit is located in an area of major relief, with local variations in topography ranging from 3,700 to 5,800 m in elevation. The climate is typical for the northern Chilean Andes.