Barrick Gold's digital reinvention taking shape in Nevada desert

Nevada

ELKO, Nevada is no Silicon Valley.

Yet it's here, in an unremarkable warehouse in the foothills of the Ruby Mountains, that Barrick Gold Corp has created an in-house coding hub to design software for its nearby Cortez operation - one step in its plan to use technology to revolutionise the business. From underground Wi-Fi to sensors that track the output of every miner, it's all part of what Cisco Systems Inc executive chairman John Chambers calls an "audacious goal" by his Barrick counterpart John Thornton to drag gold mining into the 21st century.

It's been 13 months since Mr Thornton, 63, first unveiled his vision to team up with Cisco and transform Barrick's Nevada operations into a high-tech blueprint for the rest of the company. While chief operating officer Richard Williams is "exceptionally pleased" with progress, it's been slower than expected, he told analysts o…