Barrick Gold Corp. Executive Chairman John Thornton says the Canadian miner is looking at its copper assets “very seriously” to see if it makes sense to form a copper company with one or two partners, most likely from China.
“The question for us on copper is, ‘Can you take the copper assets, combine them with another party, or even two parties and build a first-tier global copper company over time?’ ” Thornton told employees on Wednesday. “Now in answering that question, the likelihood that your partner in that endeavor will be Chinese is very high.”
“The question for us on copper is, ‘Can you take the copper assets, combine them with another party, or even two parties and build a first-tier global copper company over time?’ ” Thornton told employees on Wednesday. “Now in answering that question, the likelihood that your partner in that endeavor will be Chinese is very high.”
Thornton made the comments at an internal company meeting, parts of which were posted on the company’s website on Thursday. In a wide-ranging discussion, Thornton outlined his long-term strategy for Barrick to employees who, under a sweeping share-ownership plan, are also investors.
The plan includes increasing its portfolio of so-called tier 1 assets over time, and gradually shedding anything that’s not tier 1 or deemed to be “strategic.”
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