(Kitco News) - Copper and gold work together, said Mark Bristow, CEO of Barrick Gold.
On Thursday Bristow spoke to Kitco Mining.
Early this week Barrick Gold filed its Q2. Analysts had been following the second quarter results of all the gold miners to see how strongly the companies might perform off record high prices for the metal. Net earnings at Barrick were up 25% and the attributable EBITDA margin was up 17% quarter on quarter to 48%.
Gold production was 948,000 ounces in Q2, up 0.8% from the prior quarter and a 6% decrease for the same period a year ago. Barrick is forecasting a 30% increase in production by the end of the decade through organic growth.
Bristow highlighted the company's Reko Diq project in Pakistan, 50% owned by Barrick and the rest by state-owned enterprises. Bristow said Barrick's goal is build a tier one copper business. Barrick is targeting 400kt copper and 500koz gold per annum from the project. A feasibility study is on track for completion by year-end with first production scheduled for 2028.
"Copper is as strategic as gold is precious," said Bristow. "As you grow as a gold miner, you have to embrace copper. To keep critical mass, you've got to go to the porphyries—porphyry gold deposits—and with those porphyries come copper as well."
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