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Barrick Gold Corporation

Barrick says Argentina mine may resume within two weeks – by Nicole Mordant(Reuters U.S. – September 19, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

DENVER – Barrick Gold’s Veladero gold mine in Argentina, one of its five core mines, could resume operations in the next two weeks, Barrick President Kelvin Dushnisky said in an interview on Monday.

“I am hopeful that it could be up and going in that kind of two-week window depending on how the reparation work goes,” Dushnisky said.

Barrick Gold said on Thursday that mine operations were temporarily suspended by the government after a “small quantity” of processing solution containing cyanide leaked outside a processing area.

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Top Gold Miners Locked in Standoff in Australian Outback – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – September 20, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Deep in the heart of Australia’s dusty outback, the world’s biggest gold mining companies are locked in a standoff.

At the center of the impasse is a 50 percent stake in the country’s largest open-pit gold mine, known as the Kalgoorlie super pit. Barrick Gold Corp., the No. 1 bullion producer, wants to sell its 50 percent holding of the pit. Newmont Mining Corp., which stands at No. 2 and already owns half the mine — and operates it — wants to buy. That’s where the simplicity ends.

Toronto-based Barrick has opened up a bidding process for its half of the mine, and President Kelvin Dushnisky expects the auction to be competitive. Initial indications are very positive,” Dushnisky said Monday in an interview from Colorado Springs during the Denver Gold Forum. “We think it’s going to be a strong process.”

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For mining companies, digitization is the next gold rush – by John Chambers and John Thornton (Globe and Mail – September 19, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

John Chambers is executive chairman of Cisco. John Thornton is executive chairman of Barrick Gold.

Canada was built on its mining heritage. Today, the industry contributes about $54-billion a year to Canada’s gross domestic product – a driving force of the national economy. Yet mining lags behind other industries in one critical aspect: digital innovation.

That shortcoming significantly threatens the industry’s ability to meet future demands and survive in the digital age. By 2020, 75 per cent of businesses will be a digital business or preparing to become one. Companies that fail to embrace this trend will not survive.

Compounding this challenge, the mining industry faces lower commodity prices and maturing mines that are becoming more expensive to operate and less productive. In 2014, the combined value of the top 40 global mining companies shrank by $156-billion (U.S.), approximately 14 per cent.

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Barrick’s Argentina mine suspended after cyanide spill – by Susan Taylor (Reuters/Globe and Mail – September 15, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

TORONTO — Reuters – Barrick Gold Corp said on Thursday that operations at its Veladero mine in Argentina were temporarily suspended by the government after a “small quantity” of processing solution that contains cyanide leaked outside a processing area.

The solution flowed over a berm surrounding the leach pad where gold is processed after a pipe was damaged on Sept. 8 by a large block of ice that rolled down a valley slope, Barrick said.

The affected ground and other material was collected and returned to the pad, said Barrick spokesman Andy Lloyd. “We are working with authorities to confirm the volume estimate,” he said.

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Fool’s Gold the Only Find for Barrick Going High Tech: Gadfly – by David Fickling (Washington Post/Bloomberg – September 13, 2016)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

(Bloomberg) — Modern miners are phenomenally good at making money from turning base rock into gold.

The average deposit contains just 1.01 grams of the precious metal for every metric ton of ore, according to a 2013 report by Natural Resource Holdings. To put that in perspective, you’d need to crush and process a Statue of Liberty’s worth of ore at that grade to extract just two teaspoons of gold — worth about $8,800 at current spot prices.

For decades, miners have seen those grades fall, and fall, and fall, leading to yet-to-be-realized fears the world is facing peak gold. Back in the late 1960s, mined gold came in at more than 10 grams a ton on average, according to MinEx Consulting. Nowadays, Barrick, the world’s biggest gold miner, sees the 1.32 grams/ton grade in its reserves as something to boast about — and not without justification.

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Silver Wheaton has fingers crossed for Pascua-Lama project’s revival – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – September 13, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Randy Smallwood would be happy – eager, even – to contribute a billion dollars toward the restart of Pascua-Lama, the massive gold project in South America that Barrick Gold Corp. mothballed three years ago.

In fact, Mr. Smallwood, the chief executive officer of Silver Wheaton Corp. of Vancouver, can’t help rubbing his hands – literally – at the prospect of a Pascua-Lama revival.

“It’s the best half-built gold mine in the world,” he says in an interview. He adds: “We’re willing to work with Barrick in terms of helping them finance a restart.” For Mr. Smallwood and his company, a re-emergence of Pascua-Lama would help solve a problem: The disappearance of big deals in the so-called “streaming” sector.

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Barrick turns to Cisco to drag gold mining into digital era – by Danielle Bochove and Dina Bass (Financial Post/Bloomberg – September 12, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

The biggest gold producer is joining forces with an even larger tech giant to drag the traditional world of mining into the new millennium.

Barrick Gold Corp. signed a deal with Cisco Systems Inc. for a “digital reinvention” of its global mining operations, the Toronto-based miner said in a statement Monday. The partnership — struck between Barrick Executive Chairman John Thornton and Cisco Chairman John Chambers — will start with the Cortez mine in Nevada.

The goal is to cut costs and wring additional value out of existing mines. For example, Barrick expects a flow of real-time data will allow it to predict when equipment is likely to need maintenance and to adjust mine plans quickly as conditions such as prices, weather or ore grades change. The partnership will increase cash flow over the long term while reducing environmental impact and increasing transparency with governments and communities, Thornton said.

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Barrick to take smaller, phased approach to Argentina-based Pascua-Lama project – by Henry Lazenby (Mining Weekly.com – September 1, 2016)

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Major miner Barrick Gold has appointed former executive George Bee to lead the development of a smaller, phased operation at its stalled Pascua-Lama project, straddling the Chile/Argentina border, the company said Thursday.

Barrick had halted the project in 2013 after investing $5-billion in it. As well as permitting issues, cost overruns and a sharp drop in bullion prices, it faced the strong and organised opposition of the local indigenous communities.

Pascua-Lama was originally expected to cost no more than $3-billion when construction was approved in 2009. However, the cost of the project has since escalated to $8.5-billion.

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[Barrick/Kinross] Mine makes way for wildlife – by Adella Harding (Elko Daily Free Press – August 26, 2016)

http://elkodaily.com/

Bald Mountain Mine south of the Ruby Mountains has started expansion work now that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has approved an alternate plan that mitigates concerns about mule deer migration, including a major cut in the acreage that can be disturbed.

The plan also eases concerns about sage grouse habitat, wild horses and views from the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge. “Water also was one of those considerations,” said Jill Moore, Bristlecone Field Office manager for the Ely BLM district.

The chosen alternative will disturb 3,097 acres, compared with the original proposal for an expansion that would disturb 7,097 acres. “That’s a 56 percent reduction in proposed disturbance,” said Stephanie Trujillo, assistant field manager for the Ely BLM District’s Bristlecone Field Office. “A lot of it is environmental impact reduction.”

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Soros Cashes In as Barrick Posts Best-Ever First Half Rally – by Luzi-Ann Javier (Bloomberg News – August 16, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Billionaire George Soros isn’t waiting around to see if this year’s surge in gold-mining shares will last.

Soros Fund Management LLC, which took a $263.7 million stake in Barrick Gold Corp. in the first quarter, cut its holdings in the world’s biggest producer of the metal by 94 percent in the ensuing three months, a U.S. regulatory filing showed Monday. After climbing 169 percent in the first half, its best-ever performance for the period, Barrick shares have slipped from a three-year high reached last month.

Producers got a boost after spot-gold prices had the best first half in four decades. Investors flocked to bullion and the companies that mine it as central banks around the world increased economic stimulus to support growth and the Federal Reserve kept U.S. borrowing costs low.

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Newmont’s Carlin team wins national mine rescue competition: Barrick’s Turquoise Ridge team won first in one of the technician portions (Elko Daily Free Press – August 8, 2016)

http://elkodaily.com/

RENO – Newmont Mining Corp.’s Carlin Team beat out 35 teams from 16 states nationwide to finish first at the 2016 National Metal and Nonmetal Mine Rescue Contest in Reno.

The Carlin team came in third in the field competition, first place for first aid and second for team tech (BG4) during the four-day event held July 25-28 in Reno. Barrick Gold’s “Turquoise Ridge Regulators” from Golconda, came in first in the bio technician team competition.

Co-hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration and the Nevada Mining Association, mine rescue competitions gauge the readiness of teams and their individual members – sharpening skills and testing their knowledge in a series of simulated emergency scenarios, such as a mine fire, explosion or roof collapse.

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BNN Reporter Catherine Murray Interviews Barrick Gold President Kelvin Dushnisky (Business Network News – July 28, 2016)

  http://www.bnn.ca/ Last time he was on BNN, Barrick Gold President Kelvin Dushnisky talked about the company’s focus on debt reduction and growing free cash flow. He joins BNN again for an update on the turnaround plans. He also talks about the gold producer’s plans to sell its 50-percent stake in a Western Australian mine.

Little appetite for Barrick Gold’s Super Pit stake – by Bridget Carter and Gretchen Friemann (The Australian – August 4, 2016)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

It’s the billion-dollar goldmine that no one seems to want.

The announcement last week from Canada’s Barrick Gold that it intended to sell its 50 per cent stake in Kalgoorlie’s giant Super Pit, arguably Australia’s most famous goldmine, has created plenty of buzz in and around this week’s big Diggers & Dealers mining forum.

Unfortunately for Barrick and its hopes of securing anywhere near the $900 million price tag mooted for its stake, that buzz had been overwhelmingly negative.

While almost every gold play at the conference has been talking up their appetite for deals, those same gold plays have all but unanimously ruled out any interest in the Super Pit stake.

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Canadian gold miners aim to reduce debt by keeping lid on costs – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – July 28, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Euphoria? What euphoria? The soaring price of gold has failed to ignite expansion frenzy at Canada’s largest gold miners. Instead, the latest round of earnings reports show an industry intent on reducing debt and rebuilding confidence.

Goldcorp Inc., which came up far short of analysts’ expectations , told a conference call on Thursday that it was installing a rigorous new accounting system, cutting staff at head and regional offices by a third and selling mines as it seeks to reassure investors that it is on the right track.

Barrick Gold Corp. announced plans to sell its half stake in the Kalgoorlie mine in western Australia as it continues to make progress toward meeting its target of reducing debt by at least $2-billion (U.S.) this year.

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Barrick Presses On With Asset Sales in the Face of Gold’s Rally – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – July 27, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. plans to forge ahead with efforts to divest peripheral assets — starting with its stake in the Kalgoorlie Super Pit in Australia — even as surging gold prices spur the highest profit in three years.

In its second-quarter earnings statement Wednesday, the world’s largest gold producer said it made $968 million in debt repayments this year, almost half its target, and will continue pursuing non-core asset sales.

Earnings excluding one-time items matched analysts’ estimates, while net income was the highest since the first quarter of 2013. In a mixed bag of results for the sector, Newmont Mining Corp. and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. beat estimates while Goldcorp Inc. and Kinross Gold Corp. missed.

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