Barrick Awards Aker Kvaerner Australia EPC Contract for Cowal Gold Project

---

Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). The stop-start Cowal Gold project in central New South Wales is now on track, with Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX) (Toronto, Canada) awarding Aker Kvaerner (OSLO:AKVER) (Oslo, Norway) the EPC contract (engineering, construction and procurement). The project has encountered resistance from the local population, as well as environmental permitting difficulties over a number of years, but these have now been cleared.

The Cowal resource contains about 2.5 million ounces of proven and probable reserves and is expected top produce an average of between 220,000 to 235,000 ounces of gold per annum.

The project, which AK will complete in 22 months for operations to begin in the first half of 2006, represents a significant new investment for Barrick in Australia and is expected to make an important contribution to Barrick's growing production profile, said Stephen Orr, Managing Director of Barrick Gold of Australia. Barrick is the third largest gold producer in the world. AK will have more than 80 engineers and procurement and management staff on site during peak construction periods.

Barrick has a number of gold mining operations in Western Australia, a region which produces 75% of Australia's gold production and holds 66% of the country's 4,500 ton gold resources. Barrick is a joint venture owner with Newmont Australia (NYSE:NEW) (Denver, Colorado) of the 'Big Pit' at Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM), where 850,000 ounces of gold per year are produced.

Gold is Australia's second largest export earner after coal and the country is the world's third largest producer and contains 10% of the world’s proven gold resources.

PEC 86000327