Bullion major Barrick has selected six projects in Japan with the potential to host Tier 1 or Tier 2 orebodies to advance to a second evaluation phase under its strategic alliance with TSX-V-listed explorer Japan Gold.

Tier 1 ore bodies are defined by Barrick as having five-million-ounce or greater potential, with production of at least 500 000 oz/y of gold for ten years, and Tier 2 ore bodies are defined as having three-million-ounce or greater potential, producing 300 000 oz/y over a decade.

In addition to the six projects progressing to the second evaluation phase of the strategic alliance, Barrick is continuing its initial evaluation on three project areas that were added to the alliance following its formation in February 2020.

“The Barrick team is excited that the country-wide screening programme has been successful in defining multiple projects, which will now receive more focused work programmes in order to progress them to the next stage. The programmes are likely to include geophysical surveys and drilling on the best targets, as we continue the search for world-class orebodies in Japan,” said Barrick VP exploration for Asia Pacific Marian Moroney.

As part of the alliance agreement, Barrick agreed to sole fund a two-year initial evaluation phase of all 29 projects initially included in the Barrick alliance, as well as a two-year initial evaluation phase on any projects subsequently acquired by Japan Gold and included in the Barrick alliance, starting on their acquisition date, and to sole fund a subsequent three-year second evaluation phase on projects which meet its criteria.

In February, Japan Gold granted Barrick a six-month extension, to August 31, 2022, to complete the initial evaluation phase on the original project portfolio, owing to delays and travel restrictions caused by the global Covid pandemic.

"The Japan Gold team has completed an enormous amount of work over the past two-and-a-half years evaluating the 29 Barrick alliance projects in order to demonstrate to Barrick the high quality of the Japan Gold project portfolio and its prospectivity.

“We are highly encouraged that Barrick has selected six projects with the potential to host Tier 1 or Tier 2 ore bodies and we look forward to aggressively advancing these projects,” said chairperson and CEO John Proust.

He added that with the evaluations completed by the Barrick alliance, Japan Gold held a comprehensive and unique data set on Japan's epithermal-gold districts and was well-positioned to advance areas of high-prospectivity which did not fit Barrick's criteria but might still host large high-grade gold deposits. 

“We are internally evaluating all projects that Barrick did not select, which remain at an early stage of investigation but offer exploration potential, with a view to determining which to advance independently or by bringing in additional partners."