Barrick Gold
Barrick is the world’s pre-eminent gold producer, with a portfolio of 27 operating mines, many advanced exploration and development projects located across five continents, and large land positions on the most prolific and prospective mineral trends. The Company also has the largest reserves in the industry, with 124.6 million ounces of proven and probable gold reserves, 6.2 billion pounds of copper reserves and 1.03 billion ounces of contained silver within gold reserves as at December 31, 2007.
In 2007, Barrick produced 8.06 million ounces of gold at a cash cost of $350 per ounce. In addition, the Company produced 402 million pounds of copper at a total cash cost of $0.83 per pound. For 2008, Barrick is targeting gold production of 7.6-8.1 million ounces and copper production of approximately 380-400 million pounds. Total cash costs are expected to be $390-$415 per ounce of gold and $1.15-$1.25 per pound of copper.
Barrick Gold fully eliminates hedge book
The world largest gold miner, Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE: ABX, TSX: ABX) says it now has full leverage to the gold price following the elimination of all of its Gold Hedges. Given the recent acceleration of the gold market rally investors welcomed the potential for price appreciation going forward, Barrick’s stock climbed over 5% in opening trades on the New York Stock Exchange this morning.
The gold price has risen from around $750/ounce twelve months ago driven primarily by growing fears over inflation and specifically the decline of the US Dollar. The greenback's decline has increased the relative appeal of physical assets, particularly gold, to protect against further devaluation.
The company first announced its intentions in September. “Our positive view on the gold price led us to accelerate the elimination of these contracts”, said President and CEO Aaron Regent, “we no longer have any gold price related mark-to-market exposure and will now fully benefit from increases in the gold price".
To fund the elimination of its Gold Hedges, Barrick raised $5.1 billion through the issue of new equity in September ($3.9 billion) and the issue of long-term debt securities ($1.25 billion). This latest move represents the final stage in the company’s de-hedging programme.
In the last two years Barrick progressively eliminated its legacy Gold Hedge positions of 9.5 million ounces at a weighted average gold price of $930 per ounce.
In the commodity markets commercial participants often engage in hedging strategies to protect their current production revenues against future uncertainties. Through a combination of simple futures contracts and more complex OTC (Over The Counter) derivatives, commercial producers like Barrick agree to sell their commodities at a future date at pre-determined fixed price.
Whilst these kinds of hedging strategies can protect the company when the price of its product falls, in strong markets hedging, caps potential profits to the pre-determined level. Additionally the commercial producer, in this case Barrick Gold, incurs increasing associated costs or mark-to-market (MTM) liabilities as prices continue to rise beyond the ‘hedge-price’.
Barrick Gold ended its hedging strategies in two ways, firstly through the purchase of corresponding futures contracts to offset the ‘hedging contract’. Secondly the major gold producer also converted some of their fixed hedging contracts into ‘Floating Contracts’, whereby the loss was fixed at a specified level and Barrick will only incur associated financing charges. The Tier-1 gold miner will then participate in any subsequent increase in the gold price. The obligation related to the Floating Contracts has been reduced to $0.7 billion and has primarily 10-year terms with commercial banks.
Other Barrick Gold articles
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30/07/10 Barrick Gold remains bullish on gold price, affording higher dividend and large capex program
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12/10/09 Barrick Gold signs joint venture to explore Coppermoly's Papua New Guinea tenements
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31/07/09 Barrick CFO Sokalsky optimistic for gold price, gold market
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20/02/09 Barrick Gold swings to Q4 loss on impairmant charge
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15/05/08 Barrick Gold Corp first quarter results look good
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07/03/08 Barrick Gold snaps up Cortez Gold Mine
Other Barrick Gold news
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29/07/10 Barrick increases dividend by 20% after quarterly net income soars
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07/07/10 Barrick sells Bullant Mine to Argent Minerals $5.3 million
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18/06/10 Barrick and Coppermoly intersect copper mineralisation at Nakru Project
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29/04/10 Barrick Gold pipeline now includes financing for Pueblo Viejo
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18/03/10 African Barrick Gold set to list in London tomorrow
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18/02/10 Barrick Gold reaps rewards of de-hedging decision and plans to spin-out African operation in LSE IPO
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14/01/10 Barrick files motion to block Goldcorp's attempt to buy 70% in El Morro Project from New Gold
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07/12/09 Barrick Gold continues undergound development at Cortez Hills
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30/10/09 Barrick Gold swings to $5.4 billion net loss on gold hedge charge
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12/10/09 Barrick Gold to acquire Xstrata's stake in El Morro Project for US$465 million
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