Barrick Gold Corp. history, profile and history video
Barrick Gold Corp. is engaged in the production and sale of gold, as well as related activities which include exploration and mine development. It also produces copper from the Zaldivar and Lumwana mines and holds other interests, including a nickel development project located in Africa and a copper-gold project in Pakistan. It operates globally, with a portfolio of 27 operating mines and advanced exploration and development projects located across the world, and land positions on some of the prolific and prospective mineral trends. The company was founded by Peter D. Munk in 1983 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.“
“Barrick Gold History
Founding and early years
Barrick Gold Corporation evolved from a privately held North American oil and gas company, Barrick Resources. After suffering huge financial losses in oil and gas, principal Peter Munk decided to focus on gold. Barrick Resources Corporation became a publicly-traded company on May 2, 1983, listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The company’s first acquisition was the Renabie mine, near Wawa, Ontario, which produced around 16,000 troy ounces (0.50 t) of gold in 1984. In 1984, Barrick acquired Camflo Mining, which had operations in the province of Quebec and in the U.S. state of Nevada. Barrick’s effort to purchase was slowed by skepticism the company could assume Camflo’s debt of around $100 million. The sale was finalized in May 1984, with terms that obligated Barrick to repay the debt to The Royal Bank of Canada within one year. The debt was fully paid in January 1985.
Barrick Resource’s next acquisition was the Mercur mine in Mercur, Utah in June 1985, followed by the Goldstrike mine, in Nevada, in 1986. The Goldstrike mine is located on the Carlin Trend, estimated to hold 100,000,000 troy ounces (3,100 t) of gold.
1986 to 2005
The company’s name was changed to American Barrick Resources in 1986. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in February 1987. The name was changed to the present Barrick Gold Corporation in 1995.
In a 1994 friendly takeover, American Barrick became the third-largest gold mining company in the world when it acquired the Canadian mining company Lac Minerals, which owned properties in North and South America. Two years later, in 1996, Arequipa Resources, owner of properties including the Pierina mine in Peru, accepted a takeover offer from the renamed Barrick Gold Corporation, worth about USD $800,000,000. A third acquisition followed in early 1999, when Barrick Gold acquired Sutton Resources Ltd. for around $350 million in stock, assuming ownership of properties in Tanzania. In 2001 Barrick Gold made another stock deal, worth about USD $2.3 billion, to buy the Homestake Mining Company, then one of the oldest mining companies in the United States. The purchase moved Barrick to the second-largest gold producer in the world.
Placer Dome acquisition
The company offered US $9.2 billion for Placer Dome Inc. in a bid announced October 31, 2005. During the following weeks, Placer Dome recommended shareholders reject the offer. In December, Placer Dome’s board of directors approved an increased offer worth US $10.4 billion. The transaction closed in early 2006, making Barrick the world’s largest gold producer.
2006 to present
On July 24, 2006, Barrick announced their intent to purchase NovaGold Resources and Pioneer Metals. The unsolicited bid for NovaGold Resources was at US $1.29 billion or US $14.50 per share, and the solicited bid for Pioneer Metals was at US $53 million or US $.88 per share. NovaGold management quickly characterized Barrick’s bid for their company as undervalued. Pioneer management however quickly endorsed Barrick’s bid for their company. Previously on June 19, 2006, NovaGold made an unsolicited bid for Pioneer Metals at US $31 million. NovaGold and Pioneer are currently in litigation over the Grace project in British Columbia, Canada. That project is adjacent to NovaGold’s Galore Creek project and 75 kilometers away from Barrick’s Eskay Creek mine. NovaGold and Barrick also cross paths at the Donlin Creek project in Alaska where NovaGold is 70% owner and Barrick is 30% owner, however, Barrick has the right to earn in a 70% share as a result of their takeover of Placer Dome in January 2006.
On August 14, 2006, NovaGold filed a lawsuit in British Columbia, Canada alleging that Barrick misused confidential information to make its bid for Pioneer metals. As part of the suit, NovaGold is asking that any shares tendered to Barrick under the Pioneer bid be held in a trust for NovaGold. On August 25, 2006, NovaGold filed a second lawsuit against Barrick – this time in the District of Alaska court alleging that Barrick violated U.S. security laws by misrepresenting its position by repeatedly stating it is on track to earn a 70% interest in the Donlin Creek mine. The suit sought a temporary suspension of Barrick’s hostile bid for NovaGold.
On December 16, 2006, after extending the bid for NovaGold 6 times, increasing the offer once, and lowering the threshold for takeup of tendered shares from 75% to 50%, and then to no minimum, Barrick finally let the bid expire. The net result for Barrick was a takeup of 12.7% of the outstanding NovaGold shares. Barrick’s then Chief Executive Greg Wilkins indicated that the company would look elsewhere for acquisition opportunities. More recently, the company was reported to be eyeing Aurelian Resources in Ecuador.
In November 2007, NovaGold and Teck Cominco announced the suspension of Galore Creek project and Nova Gold share plummeted. During the summer and Autumn of 2008, Nova Gold tried to put their Rock Creek project in Alaska into production. After less than two months of operation, production was shut down for obscure reasons. On January 2, 2009, Nova Gold announced a 60 million dollar private placement for a 30% control in the company, valuing the company at approximately 200 million dollars, or 1/8 of the price offered by Barrick two years earlier.
Through 2007 and 2008 the company offered a USD $10 million prize to the scientific community in a bid to improve silver recovery rates at its Veladero mine in Argentina. Recovery rates for silver were below 7%, because the metal is bound within silica, which is difficult to dissolve using conventional cyanidation processing.1,750 researchers from 43 countries registered as participants with 130 proposals submitted. Nine proposals were selected for testing.
Barrick Gold created the largest stock offering in Canadian history during 2009, when it issued a $3 billion equity offering, which was increased the following day to $3.5 billion in response to market demand. Revenue from the offering was used to eliminate the company’s gold hedges, which locked in the sale price of future production, rather than selling it at market prices.
In February 2010, Barrick Gold announced plans to create a separate company to hold its assets in Tanzania, called African Barrick Gold. Barrick Gold would retain majority ownership in the new company, after its listing on the London Stock Exchange. African Barrick Gold was listed on the London Stock Exchange in mid-March 2010, with an IPO valuation at US$3.6 billion. The shares offered on the LSE raised just more than 500 million pounds. In June the company was admitted to the FTSE 100 Index.
In April 2011, Barrick beat a takeover offer for Equinox Minerals by China Minmetals.
In August 2013 Barrick agreed to sell its Yilgarn South assets in Western Australia to South Africa’s Gold Fields for $US300 million divesting its granny smith darlot and lawlers mine operations.”
*Information from Forbes.com and Wikipedia.org, and www.barrick.com/English
**Video published on YouTube by “Barrick Gold Corporation“