Barrick shifts its focus to mine-building from acquisitions

Article Excerpt

Demand for gold as an investment looks attractive right now, especially if the huge government stimulus spending across the world spurs inflation. That’s likely to send more investors looking for the “safe harbour” of gold. Barrick Gold is a buy. BARRICK GOLD, $23.92, is a buy. The stock (Toronto symbol ABX; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (www.barrick.com; Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $42.4 billion; Dividend yield: 1.8%) lets you tap the second-largest gold producer in the world after Newmont (symbol NEM on New York). Barrick now plans to focus on building new mines instead of on acquisitions. This includes aiming to bring into production the company’s promising exploration projects in Egypt, Nevada, Guyana and elsewhere. That’s not to say that Barrick won’t make an acquisition should an appealing one present itself—and for a firm as big as Barrick, that’s defined as a mine that can produce 500,000 ounces of gold annually for a long time and be profitable at gold prices of $1,200 an ounce. At the same time,…