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Barrick Gold Corporation

Barrick bets on Africa with $6-billion Randgold merger – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – September 25, 2018)

https://business.financialpost.com/

But Randgold the company faces a wave of potential disruptions

In a move that would allow Barrick Gold Corp. to regain its crown as the world’s largest gold producer and tie the company’s future more closely to Africa, the Toronto-based miner on Monday announced a US$6 billion plan to purchase Randgold Resources Ltd.

If the all-share, no-premium deal closes as expected in 2019, Barrick shareholders would control two-thirds of the company while Randgold would control the rest.

In a conference call on Monday afternoon, John Thornton, executive chairman of Barrick Gold Corp. said Randgold has a track record of success in the “most challenging environments in the world,” namely Africa, where Barrick’s subsidiary Acacia Mining Inc. has been struggling through a years-long tax dispute with the Tanzanian government.

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Barrick Silences Its Biggest Critic by Buying Out Randgold – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – September 24, 2018)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

For more than two decades, Mark Bristow has been a thorn in the side of Barrick Gold Corp. Now he’s its closest partner.

The 59-year-old South African will take the role of chief executive officer at Barrick after the Canadian company inked a $5.4 billion deal to buy out Randgold Resources Ltd. It’s a bigger stage for Bristow, known as an outsider for his sharp and frequent criticisms of the gold industry and a genius at running an African mine.

Bristow’s personality looms large. He’s fond of cigars and big-game hunts, as well as motocross expeditions across Africa. He’s been known to use his pilot license to fly investors directly to African mines via his private plane, and run Randgold from top to bottom, often personally handling its investor and media communications.

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Barrick Needs Randgold to Make the Grade – by David Fickling (Bloomberg News – September 24, 2018)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Few gold miners can operate profitably near the metal’s current grade levels. A merger may be the best solution.

Gold miners have been struggling for decades against geological destiny.

The grade of metal in the world’s gold reserves has been declining for years, from average levels above 10 grams a metric ton in the late 1960s to almost one tenth of that now. That’s a worrying metric, because few gold mines can operate profitably below 1 gram a ton – equivalent to extracting two teaspoons of gold from a Statue of Liberty’s-worth of ore.

With gold prices now hovering below $1,200 a troy ounce, that deterioration of the world’s ore quality is becoming particularly acute. From levels of 1.42 grams a ton a decade ago, the average reserve grade of the top five gold miners – Barrick Gold Corp., Newmont Mining Corp., Anglogold Ashanti Holdings Plc, Goldcorp Inc., and Newcrest Mining Ltd. – has fallen to 1.12 grams in 2017, having touched a low of 1.04 five years earlier.

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Barrick Gold agrees to buy rival Randgold in all-stock deal – by Danielle Bochove, Dinesh Nair, Scott Deveau and David Stringer (BNN/Bloomberg News – September 24, 2018)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Barrick Gold Corp. agreed to buy Randgold Resources Ltd. in a deal valuing the combined company at US$18 billion, creating a gold mining behemoth with a focus on Africa.

The all-share transaction values Randgold at US$5.4 billion, making it the biggest gold mining deal of the past three years. The deal will help Barrick boost output at a time when its stock has been punished for a stagnant pipeline. The company’s shares have about halved from a February 2017 peak.

“Randgold has a proven ability to operate successfully in some of the most challenging environments in the world,” Barrick Executive Chairman John Thornton said on a conference call. “The combined company will have five of the world’s top 10 tier-one gold assets.”

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Barrick swallows Randgold in $18.3-billion deal to create gold mining giant – by Eric Reguly and Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – September 24, 2018)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s Barrick Gold is swallowing African operator Randgold Resources in a takeover worth roughly US$6-billion that will ensure its status as the world’s biggest gold company, and bring in a chief executive officer for the first time since 2014.

The all-share, no premium deal, which will value the combined company at US$18.3-billion, seems designed to overcome Barrick’s problems in Africa, where it controls mines through its 64-per-cent ownership of Acacia (formerly African Barrick), and perceived weakness among its senior management ranks. Barrick has no CEO and lost its president, Kelvin Dushnisky, last month.

The deal marks the first big expansion move by Barrick executive chairman John Thornton after four years of shrinking the company through mine sales, mine closures and the recruitment of Chinese partners at some of its operations.

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Canada’s Barrick Gold to buy Randgold Resources in $18.3 billion deal – by Zandi Shabalala, Justin George Varghese and Clara Denina (Reuters U.S. – September 24, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Canada’s Barrick Gold (ABX.TO) has agreed to buy Randgold Resources Ltd (RRS.L) in a $18.3 billion share deal to create the world’s largest gold company by value and output in an industry under investor pressure to put capital to good use.

The new Barrick company, which will be listed in New York and Toronto, will own five of the world’s 10 lowest cost gold mines and will be valued at $24 billion including debt.

The deal marks the biggest transaction in years in the gold mining industry, where companies have come under fire from investors for poorly managing capital, forcing them to focus on costs while dampening enthusiasm for acquisitions.

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Barrick and Randgold in talks on $18bn tie-up – by Henry Sanderson and Neil Hume (Financial Times – September 23, 2018)

https://www.ft.com/

Merger would create leading gold producer as sector struggles to attract investors

Canada’s Barrick Gold is in talks to merge with Randgold Resources, its London-listed rival, in a $18bn deal that would create the world’s leading gold producer, according to reports.

The discussions between Barrick and Randgold follow a dismal year for the sector, which has struggled to attract the interest of investors.

Shares in Barrick have dropped 25 per cent amid criticism of its strategy, while Randgold has fallen 34 per cent as it has struggled with a number of operational issues, including a strike at one of its biggest mines.

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Barrick Gold Seeks Chinese Partners, May Slash Headcount: Globe – by Natalie Obiko Pearson (Bloomberg News – September 15, 2018)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. may slash 400 jobs and involve Chinese partners in its troubled Tanzania operations, Executive Chairman John Thornton told the Globe and Mail newspaper.

The Toronto-based company has slashed middle management by half to about 700 and “we want to get it down to 300,” Thornton, who’s been in his role since 2014, told the Globe in an interview in London. The former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive wants a leaner, entrepreneurial partnership more like the early days under late founder Peter Munk, the Globe said.

Thornton said there’s “an almost 100 percent” chance Chinese partners will get involved in Barrick’s projects in Tanzania that are operated through its 64 percent stake in Acacia Mining Plc.

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Barrick Gold’s John Thornton won’t back down – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – September 15, 2018)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

John Thornton will tell you he saved Barrick Gold Corp. from certain destruction and set it up for fresh success. The company’s shareholders are not convinced. To many of them, Barrick looks like the incredible shrinking company. Who is right?

Mr. Thornton, executive chairman of the world’s biggest gold company since 2014, and a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. president, is utterly convinced his overhaul of Barrick has changed the Toronto company for the better – even though its shares have dropped almost 40 per cent in the past year alone and are down by more than half since their most recent peak, in 2016.

In an exceedingly rare interview – this is one boss who avoids the media – he is coming out of his shell to defend a turnaround strategy that seems to have alienated investors rather than please them. “Chasing ounces,” as he puts it, is not his strategy. His plan is to recreate Barrick as a gold company that does not operate like a gold company, while inviting big-name Chinese miners to invest in Barrick projects.

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Ex Glencore bosses try to snatch nickel asset – by Sarah Thompson and Anthony Macdonald (Australian Financial Review – August 19, 2018)

https://www.afr.com/

Mining giants Glencore and Barrick could have a prospective nickel and cobalt project taken from under their nose, if plans being hatched by ASX-listed Jervois Mining come to fruition.

As first reported by Street Talk on Sunday, Jervois has been making moves to win control of the Kabanga nickel and cobalt project in Tanzania, after the host government cancelled Glencore and Barrick’s joint hold of it in January.

The January cancellation was part of a broader push by the government to get a bigger share of its mineral wealth, but Glencore and Barrick have been upbeat in recent times about their chances of winning a fresh permit to explore and develop the asset.

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Nevada: Where the World Goes for Gold (Investing News Network – August 16th, 2018)

Investing News Network

This Investing News Network article is sponsored by Fremont Gold (TSXV:FRE).

Nevada may be one of the most geologically diverse mining jurisdictions in the world. Nearly every type of rock known to geologists can be found in the state’s desert landscape.

Nevada has been an important source of many of the world’s most critical base metals including copper, zinc and molybdenum. Today, Nevada leads the country in the production of lithium and, not surprisingly, the Silver State contains a wealth of precious metals, ranking as one of the top 5 global gold producers.

Nevada owes its unique geology and prolific gold production to the complex tectonic history of the northern Great Basin which gave rise to the widespread landscape of fault-dominated mountain ranges and valleys.

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Massive Barrick-Novagold gold mine project in Alaska receives key U.S. environmental permits – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – August 15, 2018)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. and Novagold Resources Inc. have been given a key governmental green light to build a massive new gold mine in Alaska, but uncertain economics amid a weakening gold price mean it’s unclear whether the capital-intensive project will ever see the light of day.

In a joint release, Barrick and its junior joint-venture partner Novagold said that they had received a number of U.S. federal government environmental permits that would pave the way for the development of the Donlin Gold project, which the duo first teamed up on more than a decade ago.

Donlin, in southwestern Alaska, is one of the world’s biggest undeveloped gold projects with 39 million ounces of gold held in the economically uncertain “resources” category.

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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.

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Barrick Gold chair lashes out at mining ‘industry disease,’ doubles down on his strategy – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – August 11, 2018)

https://business.financialpost.com/

John Thornton, a latecomer to the industry who lives in an $81-million Florida villa, is facing a test to his leadership as investors lose confidence

With Barrick Gold Corp. about to lose its title as world’s largest gold producer, and its stock nearing a low-point for the year, executive chairman John Thornton called a town-hall meeting this week to insist his strategy is working and the rest of the industry has it wrong.

Describing it an “industry disease,” Thornton lambasted his rivals, bankers, researchers, shareholders and others who value growth in production over growth in profits, according to a partial transcript that Barrick posted on its website on Thursday evening.

“The whole industry gets itself into a bad habit,” he said. “It’s kind of an echo chamber, and they encourage each other towards what I would call bad behaviour. They don’t see it that way, but I see it that way.”

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Barrick Says China Partner for Copper ‘Makes All Kinds of Sense’ – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – August 10, 2018)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

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.”

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