Barrick Gold prepares for sale of Massawa gold project

Barrick Gold is working with advisers to find a buyer for its Massawa gold project in Senegal, which it acquired as part of its purchase of Randgold Resources. 

Bloomberg reports sources said the asset could fetch a value of about $500mn. The company aims to kick off a formal sale process shortly for part or all of its stake.

Barrick is targeting $1.5bn in asset sales through 2020 following the company’s $5.4bn takeover of Randgold completed in January. The gold mining industry is consolidating quickly, and the biggest producers have been selling off smaller, unwanted assets as they merge.

Acquisitions of gold miners are up nearly six-fold over the last 12 months to about $27bn, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. No final decisions have been made, and there’s no certainty the deliberations will lead to a sale of the Massawa project.

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Barrick owns about 83% of the Massawa project, according to its website. The asset is located in eastern Senegal, about 700km southeast of the capital city of Dakar.

Massawa is an example of a project where Barrick could sell part of its stake to another miner operating nearby, Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said in a May interview.