| | |  Business News | April 2009 
Mexico Recruits Gold Producer
 Bloomberg
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Mexico is seeking to attract Barrick Gold Corp., the world's largest producer of the precious metal, to help explore the two-thirds of the country that may contain untapped gold fields.
"I'll be really happy if Barrick could come to invest in Mexico during my administration," said María Jimena Valverde, director of the Mining Department at the Economy Secretariat. Mexico is in talks with Barrick about the "very high exploration potential" that the country could offer, Valverde said in an interview late Monday.
Gold production in Mexico has registered a 24-percent annual growth rate in the last five years, according to the government. This year Valverde expects an increase of "at least" 40 percent to 84.6 tons of gold (2.98 million ounces) as five new mining operations reach full capacity, including Goldcorp Inc.'s Peñasquito mine.
Mexico, home to the world's largest copper and silver deposits, is betting on gold output to boost production after labor disputes stopped work on July 30, 2007, at Grupo México's Cananea, the country's largest copper mine.
Some Chinese companies have also approached Mexico about investing in copper projects in Mexico to secure supplies, Jimena Valverde said. She declined to identify the companies until an agreement was reached.
"The Chinese companies want to buy, to partner and to produce here," she said.
Barrick reps have informally met with Mexican officials, said Vincent Borg, a company spokesman, in an e-mailed statement. "In the future, there may well be interesting opportunities but at the moment there have not been any meaningful discussions."
Gold advanced for the first time in four days after a drop to the lowest price in 10 weeks attracted investors. Gold for immediate delivery gained $11.30, or 1.3 percent, to $882.80 an ounce as of 1:08 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division. |
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