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Barrick Gold Corporation

Tanzanian Government Accuses Acacia of Mining Gold Illegally – by Omar Mohammed, Helen Nyambura-Mwaura and Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – June 12, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Tanzania’s government accused Acacia Mining Plc of operating illegally in the East African country and said mining companies have been evading taxes. Acacia’s shares slumped.

An audit ordered by President John Magufuli in March found that Acacia had been conducting business in Tanzania “contrary to the law,” Nehemiah Osoro, chairman of a committee of academics, lawyers and economists that conducted the probe, said at a briefing Tuesday in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. The audit covered mineral exports over the past 19 years.

“We should summon them and demand that they pay us back our money,” Magufuli said after receiving the committee’s report. “If they accept that they stole from us and seek forgiveness in front of God and the angels and all Tanzanians and enter into negotiations, we are ready to do business.”

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In-depth interview: Barrick’s Dushnisky and Goldcorp’s Garofalo on gold mining’s future (Northern Miner – June 11, 2017)

http://www.northernminer.com/

At the Canadian Mining Symposium hosted by The Northern Miner at Canada House in London in early May, session moderator Greg Huffman, managing director and global head of mining sales at Canaccord Genuity, sat down with Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: ABX) president Kelvin Dushnisky and Goldcorp (TSX: G; NYSE: GG) CEO David Garofalo for an in-depth conversation on the strategies they use to guide both companies, plus a wider look at what the future holds for gold mining globally. The following is an edited transcript of the exchange.

Question: Looking at some of Goldcorp’s latest acquisitions such Gold Eagle, Virginia, Probe and Kaminak, is there now a premium on assets in safer jurisdictions, given the current political turmoil worldwide?

DAVID GAROFALO: It’s always been fundamental to Goldcorp’s strategy to stay in low political-risk jurisdictions — generally, investment-grade countries with the notable exception of taking a bit more risk in investing in Argentina prior to the Macri regime. But that was a generational asset in Cerro Negro, and it’s been born out in the changing regime there and the Macri economic model.

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Pakistan to open up mineral-rich Balochistan to China ‘Silk Road’ firms – by Gul Yousufzai and Drazen Jorgic (Live Mint.com – June 2, 2017)

http://www.livemint.com/

Quetta (Pakistan): Pakistan’s resource-rich Balochistan province wants Chinese companies to kick-start a boom in its mining industry by including the sector into Beijing’s ‘Belt and Road’ initiative, a senior provincial mining official said.

Beijing has pledged $57 billion for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship ‘Belt and Road‘ project that first focused on Chinese firms building roads and power stations but is now expanding to include setting up industries.

Mineral extraction is a deeply contentious issue in Balochistan, where many indigenous people are angry that the province remains Pakistan’s poorest despite its vast mineral wealth.

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In conversation with Dominican Republic Pueblo Viejo’s Greg Walker (Barrick Beyond Borders – May 2017)

http://barrickbeyondborders.com/

Walker is the Executive General Manager of the Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic

Greg Walker is the Executive General Manager of the Pueblo Viejo mine, a role he has held since September 2016. He has more than 37 years of experience in mining, including 14 at Barrick. Before joining Pueblo Viejo, Greg worked in progressively senior roles at the Porgera Joint Venture in Papua New Guinea, including Executive Managing Director. He is a former General Manager of the Bulyanhulu and Tulawaka mines in Tanzania, both properties of Acacia Mining, in which Barrick holds a 64 percent stake. He has a proven track record of delivering best-in-class business improvement, training and mentoring local workforces, and of working exceptionally well with government and community partners.

BEYOND BORDERS: YOU’VE BEEN AT PUEBLO VIEJO FOR EIGHT MONTHS NOW, WHAT ARE SOME THINGS THAT STAND OUT FOR YOU ABOUT THE OPERATION?

Greg Walker: Pueblo Viejo is a world-class operation, has a world-class ore body and is one of the top three gold-producing mines in the world. It’s a great resource with untapped potential.

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TV Ontario’s The Agenda – Steve Paikin Interviews With Mining Industry and NGO Critics (TV Ontario – May 31, 2017)

Toronto: Mining Capital of the World

Ask yourself: what’s the most important mining city in Ontario? Sudbury? Timmins? You could argue, it’s Toronto, where almost 60 per cent of all publicly-traded mining companies in the world are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TSX-Venture Exchange. And while all that may be well known to those in the business world, it’s far from widely appreciated beyond that. The Agenda discusses how Toronto rose to be a mining capital.

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Strike Suspended at Barrick’s Veladero Mine in Argentina – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – May 30, 2017)

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg) — Striking miners at Barrick Gold Corp.’s Veladero operation in Argentina will return to work as the two sides negotiate, alleviating the latest challenge facing the world’s largest gold producer.

The Toronto-based company has initiated “a formal dialogue process with the union leadership to address issues of concern,” it said Monday in a statement.

AOMA, one of nine unions at Veladero that’s focused on mine operations, downed tools on Sunday. Under local labor rules, striking employees are required to return to work once formal talks begin, Barrick said.

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Losses mount at Barrick Gold’s Africa subsidiary after export ban – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – May 28, 2017)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The Africa subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corp. says it is losing more than $1-million (U.S.) in daily revenue as Tanzania extends an export ban and accuses mining companies of massive tax evasion.

Acacia Mining, majority-owned by Toronto-based Barrick, is the biggest company caught up in the growing furor over Tanzanian allegations that the miners have been misstating their gold production by a huge amount.

The controversy is part of a wave of resource nationalism across Africa, with many governments convinced they are being cheated by foreign investors as a result of misinvoicing schemes and sweetheart deals on taxes and royalties.

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Acacia Mining fights back in Tanzania gold ore battle – by Henry Sanderson and Neil Hume (Financial Times – May 26, 2017)

https://www.ft.com/

Shares in Acacia Mining bounced 8 per cent on Friday after the crisis-hit miner fought back against accusations that it had misstated the value of its gold shipments from Tanzania by up to 10 times.

The London-listed company said the claims made by a presidential committee in the east African country this week that it was under-reporting exports from its Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines did not stand-up to scrutiny.

“If the committee’s published findings were based on accurate data, Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi would be the world’s two largest gold producers,” the company said in a statement. “Given the magnitude of this discrepancy, we believe there should be an independent review.”

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Tanzanian president fires mining minister and chief of state-run agency – by Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala (Reuters U.S. – May 24, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

DAR ES SALAAM – Tanzania President John Magufuli fired his mining minister and the chief of the state-run mineral audit agency on Wednesday after an investigation into possible undeclared exports by mining companies to evade tax.

Magufuli’s decision, announced in a televised speech, signals an escalation of tensions between the government and the mining industry, which has denied engaging in tax evasion. Mining accounts for about 4 percent of the East African nation’s gross domestic product.

Magufuli said the investigation report revealed that Acacia Mining declared the presence of gold, copper and silver in its mineral sand exports but did not declare other precious metals in the consignments.

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Nevada gold production increases in 2016 – by Adella Harding (Elko Daily Free Press – May 18, 2017)

http://elkodaily.com/

Gold production in Nevada rose 2.4 percent in 2016 to nearly 5.47 million ounces, while silver production was down 6.4 percent to a nearly 8.89 million ounces, show new figures from the Nevada Division of Minerals. Total gold production in 2015 was nearly 5.34 million ounces, and 2015 silver production totaled a little less than 9.5 million ounces.

“The value of production won’t be available until the Department of Taxation releases their Net Proceeds of Minerals bulletin,” however, said Michael Visher, deputy administrator for the minerals division, in an email in May.

The two largest gold producers were Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp. Barrick produced nearly 2.64 million ounces of the total gold production and 200,757 ounces of silver from operations on the Carlin Trend, the Cortez operations near Crescent Valley and Turquoise Ridge in Humboldt County.

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Exclusive: Barrick’s Argentina mine may be allowed full operations in June – by Maximiliano Rizzi (Reuters U.S. – May 22, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

BUENOS AIRES – The government of Argentina’s San Juan province has approved a plan for improving Barrick Gold Corp’s Veladero mine following its third spill of cyanide solution in 18 months and could allow full operations to resume in early June, a government official said.

Eduardo Machuca, the province’s secretary of environmental management and mining control, told Reuters in a phone interview that local authorities had reviewed and discussed Barrick’s improvement plan and improvements to the mine were well under way.

“I think that around June 10 there will be conditions to enable the mine, once the pneumatic, hydraulic and all engineering tests are done,” Machuca said on Monday.

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Canadian gold majors eye home-field exploration advantage – by Matthew Keevil (Northern Miner – May 23, 2017)

http://www.northernminer.com/

VANCOUVER — Canada’s gold miners are naturally interested in discovery back home, but the push for more so-called homegrown ounces appears to be on the rise following the recent down cycle, with oft-cited reasons including: geopolitical risk, operational synergies, and favourable infrastructure.

The Northern Miner reviewed exploration reports from three marquee Canadian gold producers to find where these major miners are most active in Canada.

Barrick Gold

The world’s largest gold producer had its start near Wawa, Ont., but it’s subsequently developed major production centres in Nevada and abroad. Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: ABX) operates the historic Hemlo gold mine 35 km east of Marathon, Ont., however, where it drilled nearly 20,000 metres last year.

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Investor lawsuits stack up against Barrick Gold over ‘misleading statements’ on cyanide spill in Argentina – by Sunny Freeman (Financial Post – May 19, 2017)

http://business.financialpost.com/

A number of class action lawsuits have been filed against Barrick Gold, alleging the world’s largest gold miner misled shareholders about the fallout of its most recent cyanide spill at a flagship mine in Argentina.

The class actions claim the company misled shareholders in public statements it made after a March rupture of a pipeline carrying a gold-cyanide solution at its Veladero mine in Argentina — the third spill at that mine’s leach pad in two years. Cyanide is used at mine sites to separate gold from the ore.

“Barrick Gold and certain of its senior executive officers made a series of materially false and misleading statements to investors about the Veladero mine and the company’s outlook and expected financial performance,” alleges the latest suit, filed Thursday by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP.

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Paulson Keeps SPDR Gold as Druckenmiller, Templeton Buy Barrick – by Luzi-Ann Javier (Bloomberg News – May 15, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Gold and the companies that produce it were back in favor with fund managers last quarter, when the metal posted the best quarterly performance in a year.

Billionaire hedge-fund manager John Paulson maintained his position in SPDR Gold Shares, the world’s biggest exchange-traded product backed by the metal, a regulatory filing showed Monday. Stan Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office LLC bought 2.85 million shares in Barrick Gold Corp., adding the company to its holdings in the period ended March 31, while Templeton Global Advisors Ltd. more than tripled its stake in the Toronto-based miner.

Investors poured $460 million into SPDR Gold in the first quarter, rebuilding their stake after the biggest redemption since June 2013. Investors returned to bullion and gold miners as they dialed back expectations of faster U.S. economic growth amid concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump’s ability to push his pro-growth policies through Congress.

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Exclusive: Barrick faces sanctions for Argentina cyanide spills, judge says – by Julianaa Castilla (Reuters U.S. – May 8, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

SAN JUAN, ARGENTINA – Barrick Gold Corp failed to complete improvements to the Veladero mine in Argentina that could have prevented the third spill of cyanide solution in 18 months, leading to eventual sanctions for the world’s biggest gold miner, a judge told Reuters.

Barrick appears to have missed deadlines on three orders from local authorities, including replacing pipes, before the March 28 spill, said Pablo Oritja, the judge overseeing cases related to Veladero in the nearby town of Jachal, where “Barrick out” graffiti lines the streets.

“If they had changed pipes as ordered, the decoupling (of pipes) would not have occurred,” Oritja told Reuters on Friday, the day after meeting the head of the mining police in western Argentina’s San Juan province, where Veladero and Jachal are located.

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