Barrick Gold Corporation announced today that nine scientific proposals have been selected for the Phase 3 Concept Testing of the company’s innovative Unlock the Value program.

Teams that have advanced this far will receive US$25,000, and Barrick will support funding of the next research phase.

The successful teams have already passed two levels of scrutiny that narrowed the field from 238 preliminary submissions to 16 detailed proposals and now nine finalists. These nine proposals will now undergo proof of concept testing at the laboratory scale to investigate the performance of the technology. If the proof of concept is confirmed, technology development will progress to pilot and integrated pilot levels. All development and proof-of-concept testing will be managed and supervised by Barrick’s Research and Development team. Based on the success in Phase 3, Barrick will determine if the proposed solution can proceed to the fourth and final phase -- Commercial Scale Economic Evaluation. Testing may take two or more years.

“We’re very encouraged by the quality of submissions we’ve received,” said Dr. Peter Kondos, Barrick’s Senior Manager of Research and Development. “We’ve selected nine potential solutions that are worthy of further development, and we hope that one or more of these will prove an economically viable solution.”

Successful participants have now been notified. Details of the selected proposals will not be released. To participate in Phase 3, teams must sign a Development Services Agreement that defines the level of funding from Barrick, the technical role of the participating team, and the management of intellectual property rights.
 
Launched in September 2007, the Unlock the Value program invited scientists to submit proposals for increasing silver recovery from the ore at Barrick’s Veladero gold mine. Scientists submitted proposals through a special website www.unlockthevalue.com. Barrick is offering a $10 million performance bonus for a successfully implemented soIution.