Barrick talks start soon on Tanzania export ban

MINING Company’s Q2 earnings beat expectations

VANCOUVER/TORONTO • Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold miner by production, reported betterthan- expected second- quarter earnings on Wednesday and said it would begin discussions with the government of Tanzania next week about an export ban.

Toronto- based Barrick said adjusted net earnings rose to US$261 million, or 22 cents a share, from US$ 158 million, or 14 cents a share, in the year-ago period on the back of lower mining costs and higher gold and copper sales volumes.

Analysts, on average, had expected an adjusted profit of 18 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Tanzania introduced an export ban on concentrates of gold and copper ore in March. This has badly stung Acacia Mining , which is majority owned by Barrick.

Acacia operations affected by the ban account for about 6 per cent of Barrick’s 2017 gold production forecast. Even so, Barrick left unchanged its 2017 gold production and cost forecast.

Net earnings for the quarter ended June 30 surged to US$ 1.08 billion, or 93 cents a share, from US$ 138 million, or 12 cents a share, in the year-ago period. This reflected gains related to the sales of stakes in its Veladero gold mine in Argentina and a project in Chile, Barrick said.

Meanwhile, Vancouverbased Goldcorp Inc. re- ported a quarterly profit on Wednesday, helped by lower costs.

The world’s fourth-biggest gold producer by market value reported net earnings of US$ 135 million, or 16 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30.

The company posted a loss of US$ 78 million, or 9 cents per share, a year earlier when production slumped due to a maintenance shutdown and slow restart at its biggest mine, Penasquito, in Mexico.

Goldcorp also said Chief Financial Officer Russell Ball would step down.

The mining results came as gold jumped 1 per cent to a six- week high on Wednesday, after the U. S. Federal Reserve said it would start to wind down its massive holdings of bonds “relatively soon,” pushing the dollar lower.

The U.S. central bank kept interest rates unchanged as expected and said it was continuing the slow path of monetary tightening that has lifted rates by a percentage point since 2015, the Fed said in a statement following a two-day meeting.