An Argentinian judge has ordered an indefinite suspension of mining at Barrick’s Veladero gold mine in Argentina due to a serious cyanide leak.  To underscore the severity of the situation,it is being speculated that Barrick’s mine manager – who is no longer working at the site – has fled to Canada to avoid any possible prosecution.

Lawrence Williams provides a good analysis of the situation here:  LINK.   However, it is also worth reading an article in the Buenos Aires Herald, which reports that the Government has filed a complaint against Barrick:  LINK.

This is an interesting development because the Valedero mine produces 10% of ABX’s 6 million ounces per annum – or 17 tonnes.  This represents approximately .6% of the annual global gold mine production.

It’s not clear how long this mine will remained close.  Certainly longer than the couple weeks that Barrick CEO, Kelvin Dushnisky, asserted after making light of the issue at the Denver Gold Forum.

In the opinion of this blog and the Mining Stock Journal,  Barrick is a corporate abortion of a company and should be avoided at all costs as an investment.