TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The world's No 1 gold producer Barrick Gold on Tuesday announced it had achieved commercial production at its 60%-owned Pueblo Viejo mine, in the Dominican Republic.

"This is another major milestone at this truly world-class mine. We are pleased to have successfully completed Pueblo Viejo last year, in line with guidance, and now also to have reached commercial production,” CEO Jamie Sokalsky said.




Pueblo Viejo was completed within budget at a capital cost of $3.7-billion and created more than 11 000 direct jobs during the construction phase of the project.

The operation is expected to support about 2 000 direct jobs plus nearly 10 000 indirect jobs over its plus-25-year mine life, with Dominicans accounting for nearly 90% of the full-time workforce.




Since 2008, Pueblo Viejo Dominicana Corporation had invested over $7-million in projects to improve healthcare, housing and literacy and allocated a further $75-million to remediate environmental impacts from a former mining operation on the site.

Pueblo Viejo is expected to ramp up to full capacity by the second half of 2013 and production for the year is expected to be 500 000 oz to 650 000 oz.

Barrick's share of yearly production in the first full five years of operation is expected to average 625 000 oz/y to 675 000 oz/y.

The mine holds about 25.3-million ounces of reserves.

The company’s TSX-listed shares rose 2% to C$34.36 apiece on Tuesday morning.