06:26 AM EDT, 03/18/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Barrick Gold Corp. ( GOLD ) on Monday said it has opened a training academy at the closed Buzwagi mine in Tanzania.

The Barrick Academy will offer training programs aimed at developing the company's frontline managers. The academy will train more than 2,000 foremen, supervisors and superintendents from the Africa and Middle East region in the next 24 months.

In the future, the company plans to include its contractors and expand the curriculum to cover wider disciplines, including financial leadership, advanced computer literacy and safety courses.

The opening of the academy follows the construction of an airport terminal at Buzwagi's Kahama airstrip in January.

The airport terminal and academy form part of Barrick's plan to turn Buzwagi into a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). This was approved by the government of Tanzania through a government notice issued in February.

A feasibility study commissioned in 2021 showed that the creation of the SEZ could replace the mine as the region's economic driver and create 3,000 jobs annually.