> Bob Johnson was nice enough to inform us that most other mining firms had increases in Reserves, Production, & Higher Grades & Recovery Rates BUT for ABX the Inverse is true.
The above statement is WRONG.
Barrick production, grades, recovery rate are indeed slightly down, but their reserves are UP. They have done the BEST job of all the majors at replacing reserves. They ended 2001 with 82moz vs. 79moz in 2000, after mining 6moz, meaning they replaced 9moz = 150% of production. These increases are new ounces at new lower cost mines. They added another 4moz earlier this year.
Harmony and Gold Fields did a better job of adding reserves, but this mainly consisted of the accounting process of moving resources into reserves as a result of stating reserves at higher gold prices, not finding more gold. Anglogold, Newmont, and Placer all had significant drops in reserves.
The key point is Newmont and Barrick are both having problems in Nevada and are looking to the future. Newmont bought Normandy, while Barrick bought Homestake, Pangea, Sutton, and has something like 46 joint ventures. Barrick has announced a long-term $2B investment in the future of mining and development of new properties. Let's see how it works out in the long-term. |
