Barrick's stock slides after dispute settlement sets the scene for IPO of mining company's gold assets

By Nora Redmond

Barrick Mining's stock fell 9% following the announcement of an agreement on combining mines with Newmark.

Mining giant Barrick announced Monday that it has reached an agreement with gold-mining company Newmont to combine some of their mines - helping to support an initial public offering of Barrick's North American gold assets by the end of the year.

Shares of Barrick (CA:ABX), which is headquartered in Toronto, slipped 9%, while the Denver-based Newmont's stock (NEM) rose 1%.

Those moves come after the gold and copper producers said that under the deal, Newmont will pay Barrick $1.95 billion to cover the cost of previously excluded assets from the Nevada Gold Mines joint venture. NGM was launched in 2019 to bring together gold assets owned by the two companies in northern Nevada. In February, Newmont issued Barrick a notice of default, alleging mismanagement at the joint venture.

"With the resolution of all outstanding disputes and contribution of excluded properties, Newmont has provided its consent to Barrick's proposed IPO of its North American gold assets," Barrick said in the statement.

Barrick will now include its Fourmile project, which the company said could produce up to 750,000 ounces of gold a year, and Newmont will include its Fiberline and Mike developments.

Investors seemed to be in agreement that Fourmile was worth between $10 billion and $20 billion, Alexander Hacking, equity research analyst for Americas metals and mining at Citi, wrote in a note on Monday. So the payment by Newmont may be lower than what some had expected, he added.

"We are on track to complete the IPO of our North American gold assets by the end of this year," Barrick CEO Mark Hill said in the statement. "The cooperation agreement with Newmont expands the Nevada complex to nearly 100-million-ounces, and the agreement gives us great flexibility and value."

Barrick, which has a market capitalization of about $73 billion, according to FactSet, reported revenue of $5.29 billion in the second quarter, up 44% from the same period of the previous year.

-Nora Redmond

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08-10-26 1014ET