Newmont Mining Corporation

Newmont's goal to sustain our business depends, in part, on our ability to grow and develop new mining opportunities. Our Discovery and Development (D&D) team is responsible for finding, creating and developing new mines, as well as identifying innovative ways to extract additional value within existing operations and projects. This team delivers reserves and businesses that are integrated into our operations.

D&D is responsible for managing generative and near mine exploration activities, evaluating the early stages of major development opportunities and delivering businesses into operation. We work to efficiently manage opportunities and deliver on our plans in a safe, and environmentally and socially responsible manner.

Our objective is to fill Newmont's production pipeline with quality projects to replenish our reserves and sustain our business. This is achieved by identifying internal and external opportunities, which we evaluate and act upon in partnership with our Corporate Development team.

Newmont typically has several projects at various stages of development in our pipeline at any given time. We evaluate the viability of each project using a five-phased process called Stage Gate, which ensures we complete the necessary work and analysis before approving and advancing to the next stage of development. 

There are three delivery arms within our D&D team:

• Generative Exploration finds new business opportunities, including such district-scale discoveries that led to the development of our Carlin, Batu Hijau and Yanacocha operations.
• Business Opportunity Creation manages the early stages of the major project pipeline to create reliable and innovative business cases for near mine and new major capital opportunities, as well as all near mine exploration.
• Business Opportunity Delivery manages the projects in the mid-to-later stages of development to ensure on-time, on-budget and fit-for-purpose delivery into commercial production in partnership with our operating regions.

The delivery teams are supported by two solution teams that provide technical expertise and functional leadership across all stages of the pipeline, focusing on driving innovation and business effectiveness.

D&D oversees exploration, research and development, and capital budgets, which total approximately $1 billion in 2009. In 2008, the group successfully delivered two major businesses into operation: the Nevada Power Plant and Yanacocha Gold Mill, which are both operating above expectations. At the end of 2008, we also increased equity gold non-reserve mineralization by about 40 percent, and we added 5.1 million ounces equity gold reserves (about a 6 percent increase) for a total of 91.6 million ounces, which includes the acquisition of the remaining 33.33 percent of Boddington.