Mark Bristow

IS this the year when the deal-shy Bristow actually goes ahead and carries out a big M&A deal for Barrick? The outspoken gold executive has positively revelled over the years in trashing everybody else’s deals and stressing that Barrick remains on the one true path to enhancing shareholder value which is through organic growth. His long-held conviction – delivered with all the finesse of an old-school Bible-thumping preacher – is that the market will reward Barrick for replacing production at a cost cheaper than can be achieved in M&A. That’s what he did at Randgold Resources, but it has not happened so far at Barrick in a market where it seems investors are wary of gold equities in general.

When gold first went through the $2,000/oz level back in 2020, the Barrick share price hit C$40. Over the past year, during which gold has gone through the $2,000/oz level several times, the Barrick share price has remained around C$25. Barrick’s great rival – Newmont – has followed a similar trend with its share price despite blowing $19.5bn last year on buying Newcrest. That was a deal Bristow described as “puzzling”, stating he had no interest in Newcrest.

Bristow has also described Gold Fields’ failed attempt at taking over Yamana as “stupid” while the prior failure to merge AngloGold Ashanti with Gold Fields was a “tragedy”. What may be changing Bristow’s thinking is the rising strategic importance of copper in his future operations. Speculation linked Barrick to a possible play for First Quantum last year while the group is expanding its Lumwana Mine in Zambia and developing the Reko Diq copper-gold mine in Pakistan. Bristow refuses to comment on market speculation so we will just have to wait and see.