By Robb M. Stewart
Barrick Gold's earnings jumped in the first three months of the year as a rise in gold prices more than made up for lower metal sales, in part thanks to the suspension of its operations due to a dispute in Mali.
The Canadian miner, one of the world's largest producers of the precious metal, recorded first-quarter net earnings of $474 million, or 27 cents a share, up from $295 million, or 17 cents, a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis that strips out items including certain one-time costs and the impact of foreign exchange movements, earnings increased t0 35 cents a share, beating the 28 cents forecast from analysts polled by FactSet.
Revenue for the quarter was 14% higher at $3.13 billion, ahead of analyst expectations for $3.08 billion.
Barrick's production of the precious metal in the quarter fell to 758,000 ounces from almost 1.1 million ounces in the prior three months and 940,000 in the same period last year. Output of copper, in demand for electric vehicles and wind- and solar-energy generation, declined to 44,000 metric tons from 64,000 tons in the prior quarter but was up on the 40,000 produced a year earlier.
The volume of gold sold in the latest quarter was down 22% on the previous quarter and 17% below last year at 751,000 ounces, while copper sales slide 5.6% during the quarter but were up 31% on a year ago at 51,000 tons.
The drop in gold volumes was mainly due to the temporary shuttering of operations at Barrick's Loulo-Gounkoto operation in Mali, as well as lower production at the Carlin venture in Nevada with planned work at the mine and at the Cortez mine in Nevada, the company said.
In January, Barrick suspended operations in Mali as a dispute with the West African country's military regime ratcheted up. Mali's government late last year restricted gold shipments from the Loulo-Gounkoto mining operation near the border with Senegal and in January gold stocks were seized and moved to a custodial bank in a push by Mali for a greater share of mineral-resource exploitation.
Market prices for gold jumped in the first quarter and hit more than a dozen closing highs in that time, as central banks in countries such as China have picked up the precious metal to lower their exposure to the U.S. dollar and investors around the world have bought gold or physically-backed exchange-traded funds as a safe-haven against heightened global tensions and trade uncertainty.
The average gold price realized by Barrick was 38% higher in the first quarter than the same period of 2024, and the price for its copper was up 17% year-over-year as the market price for the industrial metal also appreciated.
The Toronto-based company continues to target growing production 30% by 2030, leaning on developments such as the Reko Diq copper-and-gold development in Pakistan and the $2 billion construction of a "super pit" at Barrick's Lumwana copper mine in Zambia. In 2024, Barrick produced 3.91 million troy ounces of gold and 195,000 tons of copper.
Barrick affirmed it is aiming for 2025 attributable gold production of between 3.15 million and 3.5 million ounces, excluding production from Loulo-Gounkoto. It also continues to anticipate copper production for 2025 to increase to 200,000-230,000 metric tons from 195,000 tons in 2024, driven by increased production at Lumwana.
With much of the growth Barrick envisages coming from copper developments, the company this week secured support from its shareholders to drop gold from its name and change it to Barrick Mining.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 07, 2025 06:53 ET (10:53 GMT)
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