A 24-karat mining company

Barrick makes $194 million in second-quarter profits, following on from a $94 million loss a year ago.

There are a lot of natural resources to be mined in Canada. The country is home to some of the world’s biggest mining companies.

Barrick Gold Corp., a Canadian gold miner, reported a second-quarter profit of US$194 million compared with a loss of US$94 million a year ago.

Barrick is the biggest producer of this mineral on the globe. Headquartered in Toronto, this former oil and gas business mined well over 6 million ounces of this valuable mineral in 2014. Lowering prices on this commodity have hurt their market share price, but they are still one of the most active mining companies in Canada.

The Canadian gold miner, which keeps its books in US dollars, says the profit amounted to 11 cents per share for the quarter, compared with a loss of eight cents per share in the same quarter last year.

More than 75% of Barrick’s gold production comes from the Americas region. On an adjusted basis, Barrick says it earned $154 million or nine cents per share in the quarter, up from an adjusted profit of $81 million or seven cents per share a year ago.

After suffering financial losses in oil and gas, founder Peter Munk (1927–2018) decided to refocus the company on gold. He saw an opportunity to create a gold company based in North America, at a time when Apartheid-era sanctions prevented North American investors from owning shares in South African gold companies, who dominated the industry at that time.

Barrick says second-quarter production totaled 1.353 million ounces of gold compared with 1.367 million ounces in the first quarter and 1.067 million in the second quarter last year.

Furthermore, Barrick CEO Mark Bristow says annual gold production is expected to be at the upper end of the company’s 2019 guidance range with costs at the lower end of the ranges.