Reports: Barrick Gold Seeks Partners For Stalled Project

Barrick Gold Corporation ABX wants to line up $4 billion in financing to restart its stalled Pascua Lama gold mine on the border of Chile and Argentina.

The Canadian mining concern gained 2 percent in early trading Wednesday after its Senior Vice President of Development Eduardo Flores made the cost estimate in an interview with a Chilean newspaper.

To finance the work, Barrick Gold is in discussions with China's Zijin Mining Group, the Canadian Mining Journal said last week.

Argentinian provincial mining official Felipe Saavedra said in a radio interview that Zijin representatives made several recent visits to Pascua Lama.

Barrick took a $5 billion write-down in the project last year after construction was blocked by a Chilean court on water pollution concerns.

The site is located at more than 13,000 feet in the southern reaches of the Atacama Desert, among the driest places in the world.

Barrick shares are off more than 30 percent year-to-date on lower gold prices, as well as costs related to the Pascua Lama shutdown.