Twitter

Barrick Gold Corporation

Barrick Offers More Talk But Not More Shares for Acacia Stake – by Danielle Bochove and Elena Mazneva (Bloomberg/Yahoo Finance – June 18, 2019)

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — Barrick Gold Corp.’s CEO has no intention of raising his offer to buy out the rest of troubled African unit Acacia Mining Plc — but he will use the next three weeks to talk.

Barrick said on Tuesday it received a three-week extension to make a formal offer to minority shareholders for the roughly 36% stake in Acacia it doesn’t already own. In a separate statement, Acacia said it’s open to a formal offer, provided the price is fair and its shareholders support the transaction.

“My job is to sit down in the next few weeks and work through it with the minority shareholders,” Barrick Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said by phone Tuesday. Asked if those talks will include an offer for a higher indicative price, he was unequivocal. “No, we’re not,” he said. “We’re not. We would have done that already.”

Read more

Successful gold mining starts with orebody quality says Barrick’s Mark Bristow – by Trish Saywell (Mining.com/Northern Miner – June 11, 2019)

https://www.mining.com/

Mark Bristow, officially installed as president and CEO of Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) on New Year’s Day, sat down with The Northern Miner for a fireside chat at The Northern Miner’s Canadian Mining Symposium at Canada House in London, U.K., on May 22, 2019, to talk about his vision for the company and the gold mining industry more broadly since Barrick’ blockbuster merger with Randgold Resources — the smaller, African-focused gold miner he founded and led until the merger.

The Northern Miner: You’ve been a critic of the gold mining industry for many years. You said it was undisciplined and there was poor return on invested capital, but Randgold Resources was always an outlier. You always focused on the geology; it was always about the orebody.

And your guiding principle was that an orebody had to have at least 3 million ounces of gold and an internal rate of return of 20% at a long term gold price of US$1,000 an ounce. Now that you’re heading up the bigger company, Barrick Gold, with assets all over the world and its own challenges. How do you see that going forward? Do you have your different strategic filters at Barrick than you did at Randgold?

Read more

Gold giants battling to lure back investors who fled industry – by Danielle Bochove and Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg/Toronto Star – June 9, 2019)

https://www.thestar.com/

What’s better than GOLD? In the wake of two mega-mergers that have reset the gold industry, one small detail has delighted Mark Bristow, Barrick Gold Corp.’s chief executive officer: his company’s ability to secure the rights to trade its stock under the ticker GOLD in New York.

Barrick and newly merged Newmont Goldcorp Corp. are in a race to lure back generalist investors who fled the gold sector years ago. While Newmont has the advantage of size — it’s bigger by market capitalization and production — having the ticker GOLD certainly can’t hurt in the fight for brand recognition.

“If you want to be relevant in this world, you’ve got to attract a broader base of investors,” Bristow said in a phone interview Thursday. “A combination of the GOLD, and revitalizing the Barrick brand itself, is an exciting thing.”

Read more

Argentina Supreme court upholds glacier protection law (Associated Press/Washington Post – June 4, 2019)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina’s Supreme Court upheld the country’s glacier protection law Tuesday, rejecting an effort by mining giant Barrick Gold Corp. to have it declared unconstitutional.

The decision was praised by environmentalists and marked a setback for one of the world’s biggest gold miners.

Barrick argued that the 2010 law could affect its projects near glacial areas in Argentina. But the top court said Barrick had not proved that the law curbing mining on and around the country’s glaciers to protect water supplies caused any damage to the company.

Read more

‘The ball is now in Barrick’s court’: Tanzania says Acacia won’t be allowed any role in country – by Ken Karuri and Danielle Bochove (BNN/Bloomberg News – May 28, 2019)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Tanzania will no longer allow Acacia Mining Plc (ABGLF.PK) to manage its mines in the country and will only work with the company’s parent, Barrick Gold Corp. (), to resolve the two-year impasse that has stymied operations, a government spokesman said.

“We will no longer work with Acacia,” Hassan Abbasi said Tuesday by phone. “Under no circumstances can Acacia be a party to the agreements, or have any role in the operation or management of the Barrick mining subsidiaries in Tanzania. The ball is now in Barrick’s court.”

Acacia has been at odds with Tanzania’s government since July 2017, when the state handed the London-listed gold producer a $190 billion tax bill, saying it under-declared bullion exports.

Read more

Study into $1bn Pueblo Viejo expansion to be completed next year – Bristow – by Mariaan Webb (MiningWeekly.com – May 28, 2019)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

The world’s largest gold mining companies are committed to the long-term development of the Dominican Republic and are considering putting up another $1-billion for the expansion of the Pueblo Viejo mine, Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow said on Monday.

Barrick and its joint venture (JV) partner in Pueblo Viejo, Newmont Goldcorp, would next year complete a feasibility study considering the expansion of the processing plant and tailings capacity, as well the potential for a mine life extension to 2030 and beyond.

The proposed capital investment would more than double the contribution the mine has already made to the Dominican Republic, Bristow said in a media statement.

Read more

Barrick CEO Says Nothing Exploitive in Play for Acacia Shares – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – May 27, 2019)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A low-ball proposal by parent Barrick Gold Corp. to buy out Acacia Mining Plc is an “appropriate” and “elegant” solution to a two-year dispute that has devastated the relationship between the global miner and one of its African subsidiaries, Barrick’s CEO says.

Barrick is not prepared to consider raising its bid at this point, Mark Bristow said Friday. He also declined to comment on the reaction his proposal has received from Acacia’s minority shareholders, saying only that he is engaged in regular discussions with Barrick investors, many of whom also hold Acacia shares.

“We’re not trying to exploit any particular situation,” Bristow said in a phone interview from New York. “At the end of the day we do believe it’s a well-considered, fair and proper proposal that should be taken seriously.”

Read more

Barrick proposes low-ball buyout offer for beleaguered Tanzanian subsidiary Acacia – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – May 23, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

Barrick offered a nine per cent discount to the London-listed Acacia’s closing price, valuing it at US$787 million

Earlier this month, Barrick Gold Corp. chief executive Mark Bristow had said his company would consider buying out minority shareholders in its embattled subsidiary, Acacia Mining Plc, but only at the right price.

“The problem is that we are not prepared to overpay for these assets,” Bristow said. On Wednesday, the Toronto gold company made its price clear — proposing a share swap at 0.1533 of a Barrick share for each Acacia share in an offer that values the smaller company at US$787 million.

That’s a nine per cent discount to the London-listed company’s closing price on Tuesday, which comes on top of a 68 per cent decline since 2017 amid an ongoing dispute with Tanzanian authorities, which slapped a US$190 billion tax bill and banned the export of processed metals.

Read more

No ‘instant gratification’ at Barrick as CEO Mark Bristow confronts rising costs – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – May 9,, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

Mark Bristow is playing a new role. After spending decades finding and building his own mines, the South African geologist who built a widely admired gold company in sub-Saharan Africa that was taken over by Barrick Gold Corp. in January for $6 billion, is now trying to wring profits out of gold mines that someone else found and built — and then operated for years, sometimes making decisions that he cannot undo.

Bristow is about four months into his job as chief executive of Barrick, and production at the world’s second-largest gold miner is set to increase as much as 23 per cent to between 5.1 and 5.6 million ounces this year.

But costs are also up: share slid about 1.18 per cent to close at US$12.57 Wednesday in New York after it reported all-in sustaining costs would rise from US$806 per ounce in 2018 to between US$870 and US$920 an ounce.

Read more

Barrick CEO Expects to Raise $1.5 Billion in Asset Sales – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – May 8, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Barrick Gold Corp., which completed its acquisition of Randgold Resources Ltd. at the beginning of the year, has identified $1.5 billion in assets the miner intends to sell, Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said.

“Our focus is realizing $1.5 billion through next year,” Bristow said Wednesday in an interview in Toronto. The assets will be sold once they are optimized enough to create sufficient value for shareholders, he said.

The gold sector has been anticipating a wave of asset sales in the wake of Barrick’s US$5.4 billion acquisition of Randgold and a second mega-merger that created Newmont Goldcorp Corp.

Read more

Barrick to shift focus away from free cash flow as first-quarter profit falls – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – May 8, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A slimmed-down Barrick Gold Corp. posted a mixed earnings statement in its first quarter after closing its biggest acquisition in seven years.

With its previously high debt load now largely under control, Barrick also said in a Wednesday news release it is shifting its focus away from free cash flow to exploiting its ore bodies.

Net profit at the Toronto-based miner fell 30 per cent year over year to US$111-million from US$158-million for the period ending March 31.

Read more

Newmont Bondholder Revolt May Put Barrick on Hook for Debt – by Molly Smith and Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – April 10, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. could find itself partially liable for $600 million in additional debt if some Newmont Mining Corp. bondholders have their way.

The creditors are trying to block an amendment Newmont is seeking for a large tranche of notes associated with its operations in Nevada, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The change would prevent liability for those bonds from shifting to Barrick after the companies’ recently announced joint venture in the state is completed.

A majority of holders of Newmont’s $600 million of bonds due 2035 have organized and submitted their rejection to the proposed change, the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are private.

Read more

Barrick Gold’s John Thornton sees compensation surge in 2018 amid lacklustre share performance – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – April 6, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp.’s top executive saw his pay package surge in 2018 – a lacklustre year for shareholders that saw the miner strike its biggest acquisition in seven years.

In a regulatory document released on Friday, Barrick said executive chairman John Thornton earned US$12.8-million last year, a two-thirds increase compared with the US$7.7-million he made in 2017.

The bulk of Mr. Thornton’s compensation was a US$9.7-million long-term incentive payment, the majority of which must be put toward share purchases. That stock must then be held by Mr. Thornton until he leaves the company and the minimum holding period is three years.

Read more

Wrestle mania: inside the Goldcorp-Newmont-Barrick mega deal – by Heidi Vella (Mining Technology – April 2, 2019)

https://www.mining-technology.com/

As Newmont Mining continues to proceed with its $10bn takeover deal of gold-miner Goldcorp, in a shock move, rival Barrick Gold instigated a hostile $18bn takeover bid of Newmont. Heidi Vella takes a look at the potential combinations and their possible impact on the North American gold mining sector.

As 2019 kicked-off, Colorado-based Newmont and Canadian-based Goldcorp announced the two companies had struck a deal to merge, in a move that would see them become one of the biggest mining firms in the world. The following month, the firms’ consolidation overcame its first hurdle after it was approved by both Canadian and Korean regulators.

However, in a surprise move in February, Newmont received an acquisition proposal from Canadian-based mining behemoth Barrick – one of the largest gold mining companies in the world.

Read more

Newmont, under pressure over Goldcorp deal, offers dividend to shareholders – by Niall McGee and Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – March 26, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Newmont Mining Corp. plans to pay its shareholders a one-time dividend worth US$470-million after a number of its biggest investors pushed for the giant miner to redo the terms of its US$10-billion takeover of Goldcorp Inc.

The sweetener makes it more likely that Colorado-based Newmont will win support from its shareholders, who are set to vote on the transaction in a couple of weeks. If Newmont succeeds, it will bypass Barrick Gold Corp. and become the biggest gold company in the world by market value, production and reserves.

In January, Newmont announced a friendly deal buy Goldcorp in a mostly stock transaction, at a premium of 17 per cent. But some Newmont investors argued the offer was too high considering Goldcorp’s poor past performance.

Read more