JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Fourmile is rapidly competing to be the largest and highest-grade gold discovery in the industry this century, Barrick CEO Dr Mark Bristow enthused during the quarterly presentation of the New York- and Toronto-listed gold and copper mining company earlier this week.

The potential of the Fourmile orebody is growing like Topsy and in addition to size, grades are burgeoning and cost expectations are declining.

Indicative of there being a lot more to come is the beckoning of three additional adjoining exploration opportunities. (Also see attached infographic.)

Already, eight major intercepts point to a likely doubling of the mineral resource before Christmas – or perhaps even more than a doubling.

“Fourmile is, no doubt, emerging as a generational asset,” Bristow highlighted during the presentation covered by Mining Weekly.

It fits into a context of long-known Nevada proven Carlin-orebody performers such as Goldstrike and Goldrush but this time around with additional pluses. For example, when looked at on a like-for-like basis with either Goldstrike or Goldrush, the unit underground mining cost is going to be substantially lower.

To date Goldstrike underground, which was the Barrick maker, has produced some 13-million ounces at a grade of around 10 g/t and current exploration drilling – which is adding to the previous drilling – is highlighting that sort of potential again with special add-ons.

“It’s a long time since we've seen these numbers of intersections at these grades with these thicknesses,” said South African-born Bristow.

On offer is a Goldrush extension, which is now accessing host rock that is brittle along with large, competent high-grade-delivering breccia orebodies.

When you drill through these competent structures, the core is continuous, which is not normal in Carlin-style orebodies, which are normally characterized by many breaks in the core.

Furthermore, the geometallurgy indicates that a significant amount of this orebody could well be single refractory ore.

During the rest of this year, the potential of the orebody will be framed and then thinking will begin on the next step of looking to access it from underground, which will require minimum permitting via the old Bullion Hill site.

With that, avoidance of having to drill long complicated holes from surface will save $500-million to $600-million.

“What I want to leave you with, and I'm definitely going to be talking about this every quarter going forward, is the significance of this resource of tens of millions of ounces, right in the middle of infrastructure, the Nevada infrastructure.

“It's not something that you have to go and establish in some complicated place and when you’re looking at one and two ounces per ton, rather than grams per ton, it's very significant," Bristow pointed out.

RESETTLEMENT IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Meanwhile, Barrick’s resettlement action plan at the Pueblo Viejo gold mine, in the Dominican Republic, looks like being on the way to becoming an exemplary value base for people in emerging markets.

A key resettlement milestone this quarter was the signing of a formal agreement with the affected communities, which has resolved all outstanding issues through a commission process mediated by the country's public defender and the Catholic Church.

With that in place, families are now moving into the New Horizons housing estate on a weekly basis.

“We're seeing steady progress on this important social commitment,” Bristow reported.

This housing estate is enhanced by pre-school, primary school, middle school, and technical high school progression, with residents able to walk to school from their homes. It's a modern estate and everyone gets a title deed – something many did not hold in their previous residences.