Barrick planning further mine sales, chairman Thornton says – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – August 11, 2018)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. plans to sell at least five more mines, as the company doubles down on its strategy to focus on profitable mining over growing its production.

In a wide-ranging town hall speech made earlier this week to employees, executive chairman John Thornton also made it clear that the company has no interest in buying Detour Gold Corp., despite a Bloomberg report a few weeks ago that said Barrick was an “undisclosed bidder” for the struggling junior gold company.

Barrick, the world’s biggest gold company by production, has been relentlessly selling assets over the past few years after its debt ballooned to US$15.8-billion in 2013 − the firm sank about US$8-billion into the construction of a South America mine that was eventually abandoned − and in the aftermath of a disastrous acquisition.

“We have some assets right now which are neither Tier 1, nor strategic,” Mr. Thornton said. “The likelihood of us continuing to own these over time is zero.”

He defined Tier 1 as a mine that produces 500,000 ounces of gold a year, has a life of more than 10 years and is low cost. Mr. Thornton used its Veladero mine in Argentina as an example of a strategic asset.

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