Born Again Barrick Jan 1 2019So, The merger between Barrick and Randgold happens at the stroke of midnight tonight. The new guy in charge is the Rangold guy, Mark Bristow, known in the industry as a real no-nonsense, results orientated guy. Runs the entire I think, London, executive office with 7 people! Here, Barrick has 200+, of which around 90 were shown the door before this merger becomes official. His operational mindset is to keep costs to a minimum, on every front. I think he's going to have a field day with the Barrick operation, once he settles in.
So what does that mean for us? Probably not a lot at first, but I suspect he will not have the patience that the old Barrick had. He's already talking about selling off none conforming assets, with a preference for large Tier 1 mines, of which they own. Here's a recent quote from an interview he gave regarding his thoughts on the direction of the new entity....
The incoming CEO Mark Bristow has already described plans for assets sale and streamlining operations, among other ideas. One of the primary advantages that this merger will create is an increase in synergies. Mark Bristow said:
I've always said a good half a dozen assets is the right kind of profile to have. And if you look at Nevada. It itself is an asset although that it might eventually be three or four mines. And then you got DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), Mali and the Dominican Republic, which is a really big mine. Then it's about how do we tidy up the rest of the portfolio. And more importantly to deploy our exploration geologist to find more tier 1 assets.