The CEO of Barrick Gold Corp. says the mining giant will continue to focus on organic growth following the release of the company’s second-quarter earnings on Monday, which beat analyst expectations.
“(It was a) good quarter,” Mark Bristow said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Monday, noting that the Toronto-based miner expanded its profit margins thanks to higher gold and copper prices and lower overall costs.
“We’ve got organic growth and we haven’t spent a lot of time paying premiums for that growth – they are projects embedded in the various companies that we combined back in 2019 and 2020.”
The company said it earned US$370 million in the quarter that ended June 30, up from $305 million a year earlier, while revenue totalled $3.16 billion, up from $2.83 billion in the same quarter last year.
Bristow added that Barrick is comparable to its peers when it comes to shareholder returns through dividends, capital distribution and share buybacks, but the company’s “foundational value” is what sets it apart.
“The key is … what are you doing about rolling your life of mines forward? And Barrick’s definitely got a competitive advantage not only in having a series of long-life assets but also new assets that add to that profile,” he said.
“It’s a long-term game, mining, and the first thing is to be able to invest in your own future.”
Copper strategy
In addition to its gold assets, Bristow said Barrick is focused on expanding its copper-producing capacity.
He said that while the price of copper has softened in recent months after it hit an all-time high in May, he remains bullish on the metal in the long term because of its uses in clean energy technologies such as electric vehicles (EVs).
“(Copper) is definitely the most strategic metal when you look at a new world out there,” Bristow said.
With files from the Canadian Press