Barrick Gold Corporation – Page 45

Gold miners to slash reserves as price drop forces revision – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – February 10, 2014)

February 10, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

After years of costly mistakes, the new chief executives of Barrick Gold Corp. and Kinross Gold Corp. have ushered in an era of austerity in the precious metal sector.

The results of their labour will be on display when Canadian mining companies report fourth-quarter earnings this week. Investors are already expecting gold producers to reduce their bullion reserves, write down more assets and record lower profits.

But the bad news may soon be ending with companies adjusting to the lower gold price. “The worst is over,” said John Ing, president of investment firm Maison Placements Canada Inc. in Toronto. That doesn’t mean the picture will be pretty this quarter.

Barrick CEO Jamie Sokalsky told investors that the company will use a $1,100 (U.S.) price to calculate its unmined gold. That is down sharply from the $1,500 price assumption used to calculate last year’s reserves.

Barrick hopes to score with new measures in Tanzania – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – February 5, 2014)

February 5, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA — In the midst of a drastic cost-cutting campaign at its three Tanzanian mines, African Barrick Gold PLC paused to make room for a new priority: a soccer match.

The subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corp. has been slashing costs and reducing jobs from top to bottom. But it made an exception in three areas: public relations, community relations and government relations. Those are the only departments where it is adding staff.

The new priorities are an admission of African Barrick’s need to rehabilitate its brand in Tanzania after years of protests and clashes between local villagers and police at its North Mara gold mine. Dozens of villagers have been killed or injured in clashes at the site in recent years, including another incident last month in which a man was killed and a policeman was injured.

The soccer match between the company’s managers and local community leaders is an example of the company’s new strategy. “It would never have happened a couple of years ago,” Brad Gordon, the company’s new chief executive officer, said at the annual Mining Indaba conference of African mining investors on Tuesday.

Barrick pulls off giant equity offering despite turbulent gold market – by Peter Koven (National Post – January 31, 2014)

January 31, 2014

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The bankers behind Barrick Gold Corp.’s US$3-billion equity offering faced a tall order: sell the most shares ever issued in a Canadian bought deal; do it in a tough gold market; and do it for a company that was struggling to regain investor confidence after a series of writedowns and strategic blunders.

It was clear by last summer that Barrick, the world’s biggest gold producer, should do something about its over-levered balance sheet. Gold prices were down sharply from their highs in 2011, and analysts were warning the company could have liquidity problems if prices dropped below US$1,200 an ounce for a prolonged period.

Throughout this period, Barrick’s management was in touch with bankers from RBC Capital Markets on a potential plan to issue equity in order to retire debt. That Barrick turned to RBC was no surprise: the two firms have a longstanding relationship that dates back to the gold miner’s earliest days in the mid-1980s.

“They have done business with others. But if you look at who they have done business with over a long period of time, we’ve been privileged to have supported Barrick on a number of their milestone transactions,” said Jamie Anderson, deputy chairman of RBC Capital Markets.

Barrick recognized for youth technical education in Papua New Guinea (Beyond Borders – January 30, 2014)

January 31, 2014

http://barrickbeyondborders.com/

A vocational training organization has recognized Barrick as a major supporter in the drive to expand on-the-job training opportunities in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea.

The Laigam Appropriate Technology Centre (LATC) presented an award to Barrick at the school’s ninth graduation ceremony, held in late 2013. Barrick provides on-the-job training to LATC students at the Porgera mine through the company’s Operations Education Sponsorship program. Since 2007, the company has provided placements for a total of 71 students from the LATC, now one of the Porgera district’s most thriving vocational technical institutions.

The organization’s connection to Barrick dates back to 2004 when a former Porgera mine manager donated four second-hand computers to the LATC, whose inaugural class had just five students.

LATC principal Ronaldo Diaz commended Barrick and several other companies for providing on-the-job training for LATC students over the years. “An on-the-job training program is useless without the assistance of companies such as Barrick,” Diaz says.

UPDATE 2-Barrick to re-calculate gold reserves at $1,100 -CEO – by Nicole Mordant and Allison Martell (Reuters U.S. – January 23, 2014)

January 24, 2014

http://www.reuters.com/

Jan 23 (Reuters) – Barrick Gold Corp will use a lower-than-expected gold price to estimate its bullion reserves, its chief executive said on Thursday, making some of its in-the-ground gold uneconomical to mine and may result in asset writedowns.

The world’s biggest gold producer will re-calculate its reserves at a gold price of $1,100, down from $1,500 a year ago, resulting in a decrease in its reserve base, CEO Jamie Sokalsky said.

At 140 million ounces, Barrick’s reserves are the biggest in the industry and equal to about 20 years of production for the miner. Reserves are those parts of an ore body that are economically feasible to extract.

“We’ve taken a conservative approach this year and we’re going to value our reserves at $1,100 per ounce as well as running the mine plans at $1,100 per ounce,” Sokalsky said at a conference in Whistler, British Columbia.

Gold’s price rise in 12 of the past 13 years made lower-grade ore profitable to extract, allowing miners to expand their reserves.

Barrick going lean at Hemlo – by Carl Clutchey (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – January 24, 2014)

January 24, 2014

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

While Barrick Gold sells off mines and other assets to remain profitable, the company’s renowned Hemlo camp remains one of its flagship operations. But to stay that way, it faces a lean 2014 in the aftermath of a steep plunge in the price of gold.

Hemlo operations general manager Andrew Baumen said the 30-year-old mining camp is going “crew by crew” to come up with ways to keep costs down and make the operation more efficient.

“That’s our big push right now,” Baumen said Thursday from the Highway 17 complex about 40 kilometres east of Marathon.
“This is all being driven by the collapse in the gold price,” he added. “We’re operating at a break-even point.”

Baumen said if Hemlo can realize $19 million in overall operational savings and efficiencies, it should be able to remain on track to continue operating for another five to six years as previously forecast.

Hemlo, which consists of the David Bell and William’s mines, remains a large employer with a combination of 800 direct employees and contractors.

NEWS RELEASE: ROM’s New Interactive Gallery Explores The World Of Modern Mining

January 23, 2014

Barrick Gold Corporation Gallery Opens At the ROM

January 23, 2014 – The Barrick Gold Corporation Gallery is now open at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). The gallery, located in the ROM’s Teck Suite of Galleries: Earth’s Treasures (Level 2), is an interactive 600 square foot space, with multi-touch, animated displays, multi-media presentations and more.

This new permanent gallery showcases a range of mineral specimens as well as presentations on the global mining industry, including stories about mining, and how the mining industry impacts our daily lives. The digitally enhanced games and other interactives, such as a touch wall are the most advanced, hands-on, user-driven visitor experiences in the ROM.

“The ROM is delighted to share the Barrick Gold Corporation Gallery in our Teck Suite of Galleries with our visitors and inspire them to discover more about mining. From the interactive games to specimen displays, this gallery illustrates the importance of mining in our daily lives and discusses the social and environmental responsibilities surrounding mining as well as our responsibilities as consumers of products of the Earth. We are grateful to our partners and sponsors, including Barrick Gold Corporation and our Advisory Council, for their valued support,” said Janet Carding, ROM Director and CEO.

NEWS RELEASE: ROM’s New Interactive Gallery Explores the World of Modern Mining: Barrick Gold Corporation Gallery Opens At the ROM

January 15, 2014

(Toronto, Ontario – January 14, 2014): The Barrick Gold Corporation Gallery is now open at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). The gallery, located in the ROM’s Teck Suite of Galleries: Earth’s Treasures (Level 2), is an interactive 600 square foot space, with multi-touch, animated displays, multi-media presentations and more.

Gold mining: Squandered opportunity – by James Wilson (Financial Times – January 14, 2014)

January 14, 2014

http://www.ft.com/home/us

In the vast open pit at Goldstrike, electric shovels 20 metres tall crunch easily through the rock of northern Nevada. Three scoops fill a truck that hauls off 300 tonnes of gold-bearing ore, while underground teams nearby bore richer deposits at 25 metres a day.

The site, excavated over almost three decades, set Barrick Gold on its way to becoming the world’s largest gold miner. Yet more than 9,000km to the south, at a mine the company hopes will one day be as successful, things are very different.

Pascua Lama, 5,000 metres up in the Andes straddling Chile and Argentina, has been blighted by cost overruns and environmental disputes. Barrick has written off more than $5bn on the incomplete project: engineers are now putting it into what might be a long hibernation until the gold price – and the Canadian company’s balance sheet – recover.

The tale of two mines epitomises the profound change in fortunes for the gold mining industry. Barrick and its peers once enjoyed premium valuations as eager investors anticipated outsized returns from a climbing gold price. Profits flowed easily from the likes of Goldstrike’s 2m ounces of annual production in pro-mining and accessible jurisdictions such as Nevada. Now, mishandled investments and bloated projects have taken the shine off gold miners, which in recent years have generally underperformed the metal itself.

Tanzania: Gold Mine Boosts Villagers’ Livelihoods – by Mugini Jacob (All Africa.com – January 3, 2014)

January 3, 2014

http://allafrica.com/

Tarime — TARIME District Council has said it is now seeing remarkable development in the villages surrounding the North Mara Gold Mine at this time compared to the past.

Located in Nyamongo area, North Mara Gold Mine is one of Tanzania’s largest gold mines operated by African Barrick Gold (ABG) “There are big things happening in Nyamongo.

Nyamongo of today is not Nyamongo of the past”, Tarime District Council Chairman Mr Amos Sagara told a full council meeting at the District Council Conference Hall recently.

The latest full council meeting which sat to discuss development issues was attended by all Tarime councillors including those hailing from the villages around the mine and senior government experts based in the area.

The top council leader commended ABG, Tanzanian largest gold producer for speeding up implementation of Villages Benefits Implementation Agreements (VBIA’s) signed between the mine and surrounding villages late 2011.

REPEAT-FEATURE-Dominican gold rush hits a bureaucratic slowdown – by Ezra Fieser (Reuters India – December 23, 2013)

December 23, 2013

http://in.reuters.com/

Dec 23 (Reuters) – Little more than a decade ago, one of the world’s largest known gold deposits sat abandoned in the foothills of the Dominican Republic’s Central Cordillera mountain range. Car-sized boulders leached heavy metals into what locals called the “blood river,” its waters ran so red from contaminants.

Today the mine, which reopened as Pueblo Viejo this year, hums with activity. Trucks with tires twice the size of an SUV roll through its massive open pits on roads that cut through the 11-square-kilometer site (4.24 square miles), transporting tons of rock to a processing facility.

Some 2,000 people already work here, churning out shimmering gold bars that are exported to Canada and the United States, but the mine has the potential to create 12,700 more direct and indirect jobs and contribute $1.3 billion a year in exports. This dynamic, foreign-operated enterprise is part of the country’s effort to develop an industry that could help boost and diversify its tourism-dependent economy.

Yet despite robust commercial production by two of the world’s largest gold mining companies, Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp and Goldcorp Inc, development of the mining sector is vexed by bureaucratic delays and agitation by activists still concerned about pollution and government deals with foreign companies to exploit the nation’s riches.

African Barrick to compensate assault victims – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – December 20, 2013)

December 20, 2013

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

JOHANNESBURG — A Canadian-owned gold company says it is giving cash payments and other compensation to 14 women who were sexually assaulted by police and security guards at its controversial North Mara gold mine in Tanzania.

African Barrick Gold, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp., says it spent two years questioning more than 200 people in an independent investigation of the sexual-assault allegations, which were first disclosed by Barrick in 2011. “Fourteen women are presently receiving remediation packages,” the company said in a statement to The Globe and Mail on Thursday.

“Although the exact components of each package depends on the individual claimant, they have included cash compensation, sponsored employment to provide job training, financial and entrepreneurial training, education expenses for claimants’ children, relocation expenses, home improvements, health insurance for claimants and their families, and counselling services.”

Barrick Gold loses two more directors – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – December 18, 2013)

December 18, 2013

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Two of Barrick Gold Corp.’s independent directors resigned suddenly on Tuesday, the company said in a surprise announcement that came less than two weeks after it overhauled its board and nominated four new independent board members.

Robert Franklin and Donald Carty had been in charge of talking to Barrick’s institutional investors about their concerns regarding the company’s governance. They joined Barrick in 2006 when the gold producer bought Placer Dome, where they served on the board. Mr. Carty is currently the chairman of Porter Airlines Inc.

They had led the search for the new slate of independent Barrick directors, which culminated in a board revamp announced early this month that included the planned exit of chairman Peter Munk along with two other long-standing directors. Major Barrick shareholders had clamoured for boardroom changes after it awarded Barrick co-chairman John Thornton with a $11.9-million (U.S.) signing bonus, which he used to buy Barrick stock.

The unexpected departure of two more Barrick directors signals that institutional investors continued to look for governance improvements even after the board overhaul, earlier this month.

Miners faced environmental and political challenges around the world in 2013 – by Craig Wong (Canadian Press – December 17, 2013)

December 17, 2013

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/

OTTAWA – After years of riding surging metal prices and spending freely on takeover deals and massive new projects, Canadian miners were forced to tighten their belts in 2013 as the cycle turned against them.

The industry took billions in write downs as companies re-evaluated projects that they believed were worth far more just a couple of years ago and slashed spending as falling commodity prices squeezed margins.

But it wasn’t just financial problems for the miners, as political and environmental issues made headlines around the world for several Canadian mining companies.

The largest company to face problems was Barrick Gold, which suspended nearly all of the work at its massive Pascua-Lama project high in the Andes mountain range.

The halt followed massive cost overruns and protests from an indigenous community living below the project who tried to have Barrick’s licence revoked and force a new environmental impact study.

Chilean communities struggle after halts at Pascua Lama, other mines – by Marta Lillo (Globe and Mail – December 17, 2013)

December 17, 2013

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Real estate broker Patricia Cortés began a small corporate events business in the northern Chilean town of Vallenar four years ago, with her eye on a gold mine.

Her hopes for success were pinned on the vast Pascua Lama gold-copper project that had begun taking shape 150 kilometres away in a glacier-covered area of the Andes on the border with Argentina.

Vallenar is the closest commercial centre to Pascua Lama, and the town was set to reap rich benefits from the $8.5-billion (U.S.) project. Once it gets going, Pascua Lama, with 18 million ounces of proved and probable gold reserves, is expected to produce up to 850,000 ounces in its first five years.

But prospects for the Cortés’s business look much bleaker now that Barrick Gold Corp. has shelved construction of the mine, citing lower metal prices and a series of regulatory and legal roadblocks imposed by the Chilean government.