Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, is setting up shop in Southern Nevada with an IT office in Henderson.
The Toronto company, with extensive mining operations in Northern Nevada, said today it’s moving up to 25 information management and technology positions to Nevada’s second-largest city.
In a news release, Barrick did not disclose the office’s address but said it expects to staff the outpost in the first half of 2015 with employee transfers and some local hiring. The company has already moved its data storage to the Las Vegas area, it said.
The Henderson office will be Barrick’s global IT operations center, although some IT workers will remain in Toronto, said Michael Brown, U.S. executive director for Barrick, in an interview.
Barrick, whose board of directors includes Brian Greenspun, owner and publisher of Henderson-based Las Vegas Sun, is finalizing its lease and plans to take 13,000 square feet of space, Brown said. He expects the deal to be signed by Christmas.
Nevada accounts for about 75 percent of U.S. gold production and almost half of Barrick’s global production. In the nine months ended Sept. 30, the company sold 4.7 million ounces of gold worldwide and raked in $7.66 billion in revenue, though it posted a $56 million loss for the period.
Barrick, which began doing business in Nevada in 1987, has five gold mines in Northern Nevada, a power plant to feed them and an office in Elko. A few years ago, however, the company “started looking at what we needed to do to focus on all of Nevada,” Brown said.
Among other things, the company has become involved with local charities and business groups, and, about six months ago, put a community affairs staffer in Southern Nevada to oversee its philanthropic efforts, Brown said.
John Thornton, who became chairman of the board in late April, invited Greenspun to join the governing body, and after that, “we had a discussion that led to this office,” Brown said.
(Thornton and Greenspun knew each other through their affiliations with the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank.)