Barrick Gold Massively Underestimated Cyanide Solution Spill in Argentina

Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX) has been making headlines lately with news of a cyanide solution spill from its Veladero mine in Argentina. The Buenos Aires Herald reported on Thursday that the spill is now five times larger than originally thought.
As quoted in the press release:

By Barrick’s own estimates, approximately 1,072 cubic metres (1.072 million litres) of cyanide solution made it into the Potrerillos River, due to a valve failure and a sluice gate being left open on September 12.
Previous upper estimates of the spill had been in the realm of 224,000 litres. The Canadian multinational chalked up the revised number to the pinpointing of the approximate time of the valve failure, believed to be around 8pm. The cyanide solution is used to leach gold from processed rocks, a common method for the extraction of gold from ore.
Despite the revised estimate, Barrick insists the spill will not lead to any health risks for area residents.
As a reference to understand the magnitude of the spill, Olympic-sized swimming pools have a volume of 2.5 million litres.
Cyanide leaching operations have been put on hold due to a judge’s order since the spill,and the company is currently in the process of carrying out upgrades to the mine to ensure that another spill does not take place.

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