Unadjusted net income totaled just $170 million ($0.17 per share), reflecting lower gold and copper prices, higher interest expense and higher taxes, partially offset by improved copper sales. Significant adjustments to income included a $280 million income tax expense at Barrick’s Pueblo Viejo mine, a $47 million increase in rehabilitation costs at another mine that is closing and $40 million in negative currency translation losses. Unadjusted net income a year ago totaled $650 million.
The company said it expects to eliminate 1,850 jobs by early next year and that it is 85% of the way toward that goal. Barrick is trying to flatten and streamline is operating model.
Barrick also has said that it is suspending operations at its Pascua-Lama project. The Chilean government forced an environmental review of the project earlier this year, resulting in a $5.1 billion hit to the company’s bottom line in the second quarter. Barrick expects the suspension of this project to cut its capital spending by an additional $1 billion in 2014.
The company’s CEO said:
Significant cost and operational improvements achieved this year, including previously announced reductions of $2.0 billion from budgeted 2013 capital and costs, have translated into another quarter of strong results.
Barrick reaffirmed its gold production guidance for the full 2013 fiscal year, calling for production in a range of 7.0 million to 7.4 million ounces of gold. The forecast for total cash costs changed a bit at the top end, falling from $615 to a new range of $575 to $600 per ounce.
Copper production is expected to total 520 million to 550 million pounds, a jump of 20 million pounds at the lower end and 10 million pounds at the top end, compared with estimates given at the end of the second quarter. The company’s cash costs for copper production are expected to drop from the prior estimated range of $2.10 to $2.30 per pound to $1.90 to $2.00 per pound.
In the second quarter, Barrick produced 1.845 million ounces of gold and 139 million pounds of copper. Sequentially the averaged realized gold price fell from $1,411 an ounce to $1,323 an ounce, and the average realized copper price rose from $3.28 a pound to $3.40 a pound. In the third quarter of 2012, the realized gold price was $1,326 an ounce and the average copper prices was $3.21 a pound.
The delay to Pascua-Lama is a severe blow to Barrick’s longer-term plans, and the company is focused on cutting costs wherever it can. It is developing new mine plans estimating a gold price of $1,100 an ounce. Asset sales, focusing on more profitable production and lowering the gold price assumption “will reduce year-end reserves and future production.” That will not look good on the books, but you cannot say you haven’t been warned.
Shares of Barrick were down about 2.2% in premarket trading Thursday, at $20.06 in a 52-week range of $13.43 to $38.00. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $21.30 before this report.
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