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Barrick Gold Corporation

Barrick sounds out First Quantum holders on possible bid – by Thomas Biesheuvel, Dinesh Nair and Alfred Cang (Bloomberg News – January 3, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Barrick Gold Corp. has spoken with some of First Quantum Minerals Ltd.’s major investors to gauge their support for a potential takeover, after the sudden closure of its flagship mine left the Canadian copper producer reeling and wiped out more than half its market value.

Barrick chief executive officer Mark Bristow approached some of First Quantum’s largest investors late last year, according to people familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified as the talks were private. It wasn’t immediately clear if Barrick has made a fresh approach to First Quantum, and there’s no guarantee it will make a formal offer.

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Barrick gets go ahead for Goldrush mine ramp-up – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – December 11, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

Canada’s Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX) (NYSE: GOLD) said on Monday that the US Bureau of Land Management has approved the company’s plan of operations for its Goldrush underground mine at the Cortez Complex near Beowawe, Nevada.

The gold operation, run by Barrick’s JV with Newmont (NYSE: NEM) Nevada Gold Mines (NGM), is expected to start ramping up production in 2024 after the commissioning of the initial project infrastructure. The mine is expected to generate 130,000 ounces of gold in 2024 and grow to about 400,000 ounces of the precious metal per annum by 2028.

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‘A decade of free money’ is why the price of gold has continued to rise, says Mark Bristow – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – December 11, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Barrick CEO expects the demand for gold to continue increasing

The recent rise of gold to a record US$2,135 per ounce has led to much discussion of the reasons behind the metal’s positive run during the past few years, from central banks investing more in bullion to expectations of rate cuts next year.

Mark Bristow, chief executive of Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s second-largest gold producer, expects the demand for gold to continue increasing, so he’s been looking to expand the company’s reserves. But, according to him, a “decade of free money” is a key reason why the price of gold has continued to rise over the past five years.

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Barrick CEO Bristow reaffirms vow to improve safety record amid rise in work fatalities – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 3, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. ABX-T chief executive officer Mark Bristow is vowing once again to improve the company’s poor safety record after the Canadian miner reported two more fatalities at its sites this year – bringing the total under his tenure at the company to 13.

Mr. Bristow said in an interview Thursday that an electrician was killed at its Loulo-Gounkoto mine in Mali after the worker opened up a live electrical box after walking in water to fix a pump. In Nevada, a contractor died after losing control of a vehicle driving down a steep road.

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Barrick cleared to restart Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea – by Staff (Mining.com – October 13, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

Barrick Gold (NYSE: GOLD) (TSX: ABX) has received the go-ahead from the government of Papua New Guinea to restart the Porgera mine, which has been placed on care and maintenance for three years.

On Friday, the gold miner announced that New Porgera Ltd. (NPL) was granted a special mining lease by the island country’s Governor General, clearing the way for the 700,000 oz./y operation to return to production.

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Barrick Says Big Miners Show Interest in Pakistan Copper Project – by Jacob Lorinc (Bloomberg News – September 20, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Barrick Gold Corp.’s top executive says it’s not just Saudi Arabia interested in his company’s massive copper project in Pakistan — some major mining companies are, too.

The Canadian miner’s $7 billion Reko Diq project in Balochistan — a region bordering Afghanistan and Iran — boasts one of the world’s largest copper deposits and could become a major source of the wiring metal.

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Mark Bristow: Dream big and work hard (Elko Daily Free Press – September 16, 2023)

https://elkodaily.com/

The Mining Minds podcast crew recently went to the Nevada Gold Mines offices in Elko to visit with Mark Bristow, the president and chief executive office of Barrick Gold Corp. Barrick is the operator and 61.5% owner of Nevada Gold Mines, and Newmont owns 38.5%.

Bristow took the podcast listeners on a journey through his life story and the challenges and successes along the way. He grew up in South Africa and was always involved in sports and athletics – “I’ve run more than 200 standard marathons.” There were a lot of political changes going on in the country. He was conscripted into the military at the peak of apartheid.

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Miners’ hunt for copper takes Barrick to Pakistan’s western frontier – by Benjamin Parkin and Harry Dempsey (Financial Post/Financial Times – September 6, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Reko Diq adds uncertainty for investors, but Barrick is ‘no stranger to frontier jurisdictions’

For three decades, international mining companies have tussled with officials and locals over a patch of desert around an extinct volcano in Pakistan’s neglected, insurgent-prone western province of Balochistan.

Now, after resolving years of legal disputes, Barrick Gold Corp. wants to invest US$7 billion to revive the mining project Reko Diq, which experts believe contains one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of copper and gold.

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Barrick’s Bristow talks down chances of buying biggest gold competitors, as he focuses on the basics – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – August 9, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. chief executive Mark Bristow is talking down the chances of buying either of his two biggest competitors, Newmont Corp. and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., as he shuns deal-making in favour of growing Canada’s biggest gold company from the ground up.

Barrick has sat on the sidelines in large-scale mergers and acquisitions since Mr. Bristow joined the company in 2019, after it bought Randgold Resources Ltd., a company he founded and ran for two decades.

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Barrick Gold targeted by Russian cybercriminal group Clop in global data theft that hit Sun Life, Vancouver transit police – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 20, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s biggest gold company has been targeted by shadowy Russian cybercriminal group Clop in a massive global data theft incident that has affected hundreds of corporations and close to 20 million individuals.

Barrick Gold Corp. is one of a growing tally of at least 376 organizations publicized by Clop in an attack that has seen confidential data stolen from financial firms and health care providers, as well as U.S. government agencies and Canadian municipalities.

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Junior exploration ‘absolutely critical’, Barrick’s Bristow tells London Indaba – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – June 27, 2023)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Junior exploration is an “absolutely critical” component of a sustainable mining industry, and “it is something that we neglect”, Barrick president and CEO Dr Mark Bristow has told the London Indaba.

“We are always engaged in exploration and we are always talking to the junior explorers,” said Bristow. The Africa-linked Randgold Resources that Bristow ran before merging it with Barrick four years ago had a highly successful discover and develop strategy that resulted in a discovered cost per ounce being considerably lower than the ounces other gold companies were acquiring through mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

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World’s No. 2 gold miner is trying to get bigger in copper – by Jacob Lorinc (Bloomberg News – June 18, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

For a company with “gold” in its name, Barrick Gold Corp. has become noticeably fixated on copper. The world’s second-largest bullion producer recently approached First Quantum Minerals Ltd. to discuss a potential takeover, Bloomberg reported last week.

And while the move was unsuccessful — Barrick’s informal overtures were rebuffed — its interest in buying a $17 billion copper miner provides the starkest evidence yet of a shifting focus at the company whose origins lie in Nevada’s gold veins.

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First Quantum rebuffs informal approach from Barrick Gold – by Dinesh Nair, Thomas Biesheuvel, Jacob Lorinc and Vinicy Chan (Bloomberg News – June 15, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. recently rebuffed an informal takeover approach from Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s second-largest producer of the precious metal, as miners scour the globe for deals, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Barrick made overtures to First Quantum in the last few months as part of its search for ways to expand in copper, the people said. First Quantum indicated it wasn’t keen on a combination and declined to enter any substantive talks, according to the people.

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Barrick CEO Bristow rails against Ottawa’s interference in Canadian mining industry – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – May 4, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick chief executive officer Mark Bristow is refusing to shut the door on accepting new investment from state-controlled Chinese companies, and questioned the move by Canada and the U.S. to clamp down on such investment in the North American mining sector.

Last year, in an effort to bolster the domestic critical-minerals industry, the federal government said it would not allow any more investment by China, except on exceptional grounds, owing to national-security concerns.

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Barrick Gold CEO blasts rivals for chasing major mergers — while grappling with his own US$1.6-billion writedown – by Tim Kiladze (Globe and Mail – February 16, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. CEO Mark Bristow cannot believe rival miners are contemplating expensive mergers and acquisitions all over again, after the industry suffered through tens of billions of dollars’ worth of M&A writedowns when the last commodity supercycle crashed.

“The mining industry generally are world champions in investing in the peaks, and going bust in the troughs,” he said in an interview. Barrick was one of the worst-hit miners when the last supercycle crashed a decade ago, writing down US$20.7-billion between 2013 and 2015 under previous leadership.

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