Barrick has moved to sell its interest in the Tongon gold mine in Côte d’Ivoire for up to 305 million dollars, a package composed of 192 million dollars in cash and up to 113 million dollars of contingent payments, with completion targeted for late 2025 subject to government approval. The agreement with Atlantic Group continues a programme of portfolio pruning first signalled after the Randgold merger and now calibrated to free capital for long‑life gold and copper projects while simplifying country risk exposure, and the structure also shifts price and geology risk to the buyer through gold‑linked and resource conversion earnouts anchored in the contract terms documented in the sale of its interest in the Tongon gold mine. Investors will watch execution.
Portfolio Repositioning Gains Momentum
The 2025 sequence is material. In September Barrick agreed to the sale of Hemlo for up to 1.09 billion dollars to Carcetti Capital, combining 875 million dollars in cash, 50 million dollars in shares and up to 165 million dollars of tiered, price‑linked payments beginning in 2027.
“We are confident that HMC’s experienced management and the existing Hemlo team will be excellent stewards of the asset,” said Mark Bristow.
In June, Barrick completed the 1.0 billion dollar sale of its 50 percent interest in the Donlin Gold project to Paulson Advisers and NOVAGOLD, realising cash while exiting a capital‑intensive, multi‑partner development in Alaska. August brought another tidy exit, with the Alturas project in Chile sold to Boroo for 50 million dollars plus a 0.5 percent NSR royalty, and “This agreement allows Barrick to exit Alturas at an attractive valuation,” Bristow said. The pattern is deliberate. Proceeds
Target Copper And Returns
Management has telegraphed that divestment cash will reinforce the balance sheet and support shareholder distributions, while funding self‑developed growth rather than large‑scale corporate M&A. That stance aligns with the company’s push to scale copper, notably at Lumwana in Zambia, where the 2 billion dollar Super Pit expansion is underway to double output to 240,000 tonnes a year.
Portfolio optimisation also changes project financing needs, because selling mature or non‑core assets reduces sustaining capital calls and ring‑fences free cash for construction equity on priority builds, while royalty and contingent consideration retained on some disposals provides optionality without operating obligations. Barrick’s approach concentrates operating and permitting effort where it has scale and partner alignment.
Execution Risks And Closing Conditions
Closing risk remains. Tongon still requires approval from Côte d’Ivoire’s government and the consideration includes gold‑price and resource‑conversion triggers that may or may not be realised, and Hemlo’s buyer must close a multi‑source financing package before year end to fund the cash component and initial working capital under a newly listed vehicle.
Commodity prices and country‑level policy will influence outcomes, yet the balance of this year’s announced transactions, together with the completed Donlin sale, already points to more than 2 billion dollars of gross proceeds visibility. The capital recycling is significant.