Top head rolls at Barrick

Looks like someone finally had to pay for Barrick Gold‘s pitiful share performance over the past year and half: President and CEO Randall Oliphant was briskly frog-marched off the plank by Barrick’s board on Feb. 12. He is being replaced by long-time Peter Munk confidante Gregory Wilkins, who served as Barrick’s chief financial officer until 1993, when he left to become president and chief operating officer of Munk’s Horsham Corp., which morphed into the TrizecHahn property group and then converted into a U.S.-based real estate income trust. Barrick fell 32 to $25.25 over the period ended Feb. 11, and traded at $24.05 at presstime.

The other big story in the gold sector was Placer Dome‘s decision to exercise an option to develop NovaGold Resources‘s Donlin Creek project in Alaska. Placer has become the manager of the joint venture and can earn an additional 40% interest, for a total of 70%, by spending a minimum US$30 million, completing a feasibility study and making a decision to build a mine capable of producing not less than 600,000 oz. gold per year by November 2007. If Placer Dome doesn’t complete its earn-in, joint-venture management would revert to NovaGold, and Placer would retain its 30% interest. Over the week, Placer dropped 80 to $11.14 while NovaGold fell 28 to $4.68.

Cambior was off 16 to $2.03 as it reported fourth-quarter earnings of US$1.5 million (1 per share), down from the US$12.1-million profit booked for the year-earlier period. For the full year, Cambior lost US$8.1 million on revenue of US$204 million — figures little-changed from 2001.

Not content with boasting about its 24% increase in annual earnings to US$65.6 million (US37 per share), Goldcorp unveiled an US$85-million plan to expand its flagship Red Lake mine by sinking a new, 4,000-ton-per-day shaft to a depth of 7,150 ft. Goldcorp retreated $1.04 to $18.30.

The rest of Canada’s major gold producers suffered as bullion prices swooned: Kinross Gold shed 45 to reach $11.55; Meridian Gold sank $1.21 to $23.84; Agnico-Eagle Mines fell $1.75 to $21; and Wheaton River Minerals slipped 12 to $1.33.

Pan American Silver has decided to go ahead with its long-delayed takeover of Corner Bay Silver and its prized Alamo Dorado silver project in Mexico’s Sonora state. At presstime, shares were moving in opposite directions, with Pan American trading down to $10.15 and Corner Bay trading up to $4.70.

The base metal majors were mostly up, despite widespread gloom in the global marketplace: Inco rebounded $1.55 to $32.20; Falconbridge was up 25 on strong earnings to $16.90; Noranda eased up 12 to $13.72; Teck Cominco‘s B shares rose 24 to $12.30; Aur Resources fell 19 to $3.56; Breakwater Resources was up another 2 to 26; Sherritt International gained 9 to reach $4.75; and Inmet Mining advanced 28 to hit $6.50.