{"id":1155285,"date":"2019-12-12T15:13:15","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T21:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1009147"},"modified":"2019-12-12T15:13:15","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T21:13:15","slug":"ceo-says-barrick-has-plenty-of-financial-firepower-to-do-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1155285","title":{"rendered":"CEO says Barrick has plenty of financial firepower to do deals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Barrick Gold Corp.\u2019s chief says the gold miner has the financial heft it needs to support its loftiest ambitions &#8212; and some day those might include a merger with Freeport-McMoRan Inc.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cBarrick, by end of next year, or during next year, will be net debt zero,\u201d Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said Thursday in a phone interview. \u201cWe\u2019ve definitely got the\u00a0firepower\u00a0to build a mine or to support a transaction. We don\u2019t need any external support, for any of our ambitions, as we stand today.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cBarrick, by end of next year, or during next year, will be net debt zero,\u201d <\/p>\n<p><cite>Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The world\u2019s second-largest gold miner has been generating more cash flow, with higher bullion prices, even as it has sold assets. By the end of this year net debt will be under $2 billion, Bristow said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to settle all the near-term debt, and we\u2019re left with debt that\u2019s only due from 2023 onwards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an interview&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2019-11-06\/barrick-ceo-bristow-sees-long-term-potential-for-freeport-tie-up\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">last month<\/a>, Bristow said there\u2019s a logic to combining Barrick with Freeport as part of a broader gold strategy.<\/p>\n<p>While it makes sense to start an \u201cintellectual conversation\u201d about a deal with the Phoenix-based copper miner, Barrick spent three years putting together its tie-up with Randgold Resources Ltd. and has no plans to rush into anything, he said Thursday. Any tie-up with Freeport would also have to be friendly.<\/p>\n<p><em>(By\u00a0Danielle Bochove)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some day those might include a merger with Freeport-McMoRan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1155285"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1155341,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155285\/revisions\/1155341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1155285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1155285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1155285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}