Barrick Gold confirms the good health of its African assets
The Canadian mining giant confirmed, in its latest quarterly activity report, the rise of its African assets, which now represent a third of its global gold production and more than half of its copper volumes.
Nearly two years after its merger with Randgold Resources, the world’s number one gold producer Barrick, led by South African Mark Bristow, continues to capitalize on its African assets. In a statement released on July 15, the Canadian gold firm provided production data from its various global mines, confirming at the same time that its African sites now account for more than a third of its total yellow metal production.
According to the information communicated by the Toronto multinational, the continental gold mines would have delivered 399,000 ounces of gold out of a global volume of 1.041 million ounces during the second quarter, completed at the end of June. In particular, Barrick reports having produced 143,000 ounces at Loulo-Gounkoto (Mali), 91,000 ounces at Kibali in the DRC and 48,000 ounces at Tongon in Côte d’Ivoire. As for the Tanzanian mines of North Mara, Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi- previously held by the operator Acacia Mining, they have respectively delivered 63,000, 35,000 and 19,000 ounces. The latter were acquired at the end of July 2019, after the board of directors of Acacia Mining - embroiled in a long and costly dispute with the authorities in Dar es Salaam - approved the offer of its majority shareholder, Barrick Gold, to buy back the 36% of its capital that it did not yet hold.
Barrick Gold is also present in the copper segment, and here again has been able to rely on its African sites. The Lumwana mine in Zambia alone supplied 56 million pounds of the 96 million pounds of copper produced by the group during the past period, or 58% of the mining giant’s overall copper volumes.