Barrick Gold is teaming up with the federal government and the state of Montana to clean up the 80-year-old, 30-acre McLaren tailings site – historically noted as a significant source of heavy metals contamination flowing into Yellowstone National Park. Gold from the old mine tailings will be used to fund reclamation of a major mill site near the park. Montana officials believe there could be $25 to $30 million worth of gold in the tailings, a portion of which will be transported to Barrick’s Golden Sunlight mine near Whitehall, Mont., for processing.Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality plans to haul at least 230,000 cubic yards of mine waste out of the watershed and then place the waste in a repository on a property adjoining the site. The McLaren tailings reclamation project is considered the last major push to safeguard Yellowstone’s headwaters. Now permanently off limits to mining, the New World mining district is considered to be one of the West’s most successful mine reclamation projects. A decade-long program has reclaimed 12 mines and waste dumps and improved water quality in four creeks.