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Barrick to spend about $175 million exploring for gold

30/01/07

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Barrick Gold Corp. , the world's biggest gold producer, will spend about $175 million on exploration this year, and focus its search on areas where it already mines the precious metal, its head of exploration said on Tuesday.

Alex Davidson, Barrick's executive vice-president of exploration and corporate development, said the mining giant would be actively looking for deposits in Nevada, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Tanzania and Papua New Guinea.

Alaska and northern British Columbia would also be important exploration areas in 2007, he told reporters in Vancouver on the sidelines of the Mineral Exploration Roundup conference.

Barrick has not yet announced its exploration budget for this year but Davidson said it would be in the region of last year's, which was $175 million.

Worldwide, the gold industry has been hard-pressed for several years now to find new deposits as existing operations get mined out. The hunt for new gold has sparked a round of takeovers, not least Barrick's takeover of Placer Dome last year, but Davidson said that was not enough.

"You can acquire ounces but ultimately it all comes back to exploration. Somone has to find the ounces," he said.

Asked why Russia, a central plank of Barrick's expansion platform a few years back, was not on the list of top exploration regions, Davidson said: "It is a more difficult place to explore, politically."

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