Barrick Gold officials have announced plans to divest 10% of their shares and 13.5% of holdings, respectively, from African Barrick Gold. The subsidiary of the world’s No. 1 gold miner has struggled to meet output since its Tanzanian mining operations began in 2000.
Barrick CEO Jamie Sokalsky expressed hopes to boost profit after 2013. Barrick also suspended construction at Pascua-Lama on the Argentina-Chile border; that project has been delayed and is over budget.
“This allows us to realize liquidity,” Sokalsky said as quoted by Bloomberg News, “to optimize and lower the cost of our portfolio.”
Despite long term plans of 1 million gold oz in annual output pending 2014, African Barrick has instead posted declines since 2011, and has been surpassed by rival Randgold Resources and others.
