By Arathy S Nair
(Reuters) -Barrick Gold Corp, said on Monday it was not expecting a major hit from inflation this year and stuck to its full-year forecasts as prices for the yellow metal tick up.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said the miner had accounted for costs at current levels, but if costs climbed further, Barrick could see a 1% hit.
He also said the company did not expect to exceed costs on new projects even though there was some impact, particularly from rising steel prices.
Last month, rival Newmont warned of rising costs for materials, energy and labor in second half of the year and in 2022, adding aggregate costs were seen rising about 5% when steel, fuel and oils were factored in.
Barrick reiterated its plans to spend between $1.8 billion and $2.1 billion, and all-in-sustaining costs of $970 per ounce to $1,020 per ounce of gold and $2-$2.20 per pound of copper in 2021.
It maintained its production estimate of 4.4 million ounces to 4.7 million ounces of gold attributable to the company, and 410 million pounds to 460 million pounds of copper.
Production fell 9.4% to 1.04 million ounces in the second quarter, while realized gold prices rose 5.5% to $1,820 per ounce as a weaker dollar and safe-haven buying due to pandemic-related uncertainties boosted demand.
Barrick’s all-in-sustaining costs, a metric that reflects total costs associated with production, rose 5.4% to $1,087 per ounce of gold.
U.S.-listed shares of the company, which have fallen 8% this year, were down 1.4% in premarket trading, tracking a dip in gold prices.
Shares of global miners have fallen this year after surging on record high gold prices last year.
Barrick’s second-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 29 cents beat estimates of 26 cents, according to Refinitiv IBES. Revenue of $2.89 billion, however, missed estimates of $2.92 billion.
(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
