Barrick on the hunt for new mines, not deals, CEO says

Bristow argues that because of Barrick’s broad footprint of exploration across all prospective tier-one gold and copper jurisdictions, it has “a much better understanding” of the M&A activity than “most of its peers”.

The mining veteran’s comments come as the world’s top gold producer, Newmont (NYSE: NEM)(TSX: NGT), is closing in on takeover target Newcrest (ASX, TSX: NCM), in a deal that values the Australian miner at A$29.4 billion ($19.5 billion).

Bristow, 64, has long called on his fellow CEOs to buy each other, saying that the consolidation of the gold sector is the best way to avert a “serious reserve crisis” looming for the sector.

He formed the current Barrick after merging the company with Africa-focused Randgold Resources in 2019, in which he was the CEO at the time. 

A few months later, Bristow made an $17.8 billion hostile bid for Newmont, a deal that eventually fizzled, but that ended with the companies forming a Nevada joint venture.

Bristow appears to be presently more interested in buying assets rather than companies.

“I’ve always said that the best assets that we haven’t got are the other parts of our joint ventures,” he said in February. “If there was a way of acquiring those assets I think we would be desirous of acquiring them.”

Like most top miners, Barrick is especially focused on finding copper assets and it is already building the Reko Diq copper and gold mine in Pakistan.

The Canadian gold giant is also searching for copper projects in the central African copperbelt, an area straddling the border of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.