Key Highlights

  • Barrick (B) reported adjusted net Earnings of $1,363 million, up 74% year over year, with attributable gold production of 796,000 ounces beating the company's own guidance range.
  • Barrick and Newmont resolved every dispute over their Nevada joint venture, with Newmont paying Barrick $1.95 billion in cash and consenting to a planned North American IPO.
  • Shares fell 8% despite the results, as rising all-in sustaining costs of $1,866 an ounce, up 11%, ate into a 34% rise in the realized gold price.
  • Attributable free Cash Flow was only $141 million despite $1,704 million of operating cash flow, as the company returned $1.50 billion to shareholders through Buybacks and dividends, up 242% year over year.

A Victory Lap the Market Refused to Applaud

For a company that has spent three years explaining away one setback or another, a seized mine in Mali, a megaproject stalled by security issues in Pakistan, a chief executive who departed mid-cycle, Barrick's (NYSE:B) second quarter reads oddly like a triumph. Revenue of $5,292 million was up 44% on the same period of 2025. Net earnings rose to $1,217 million, or $0.73 a share, from $811 million and $0.47. Adjusted net earnings of $1,363 million worked out to $0.82 a share, up 74%, and attributable adjusted EBITDA of $2,545 million carried a 60% margin.

Attributable gold production of 796,000 ounces was the real headline: 11% above the first quarter and comfortably clear of Barrick's own 730,000 to 770,000 ounce guidance range, on a metric where the company has repeatedly disappointed. Copper came in at 56,000 tonnes, down 5%.

Investors were unimpressed. Adjusted earnings of $0.82 merely matched consensus, and Barrick shares dropped 8% in Toronto on Monday afternoon, closing at $40.13 in New York on Tuesday against a 52-week range of $22.13 to $54.69. For a miner selling into one of the strongest bullion markets on record, with spot gold around $4,305 an ounce on 7 August, roughly 27% up on the year, that is a grudging reception.

Costs Ate the Gold Price

The explanation sits in the cost lines. Barrick realized $4,417 an ounce, 34% above last year. Against that, cost of sales climbed to $1,993 an ounce and all-in sustaining costs rose 11% to $1,866. Management pointed to lower grades processed at several key mines, higher fuel prices linked to Middle East disruption, and higher royalties, the sting in the tail of a rising gold price.

Cash conversion is where it bites. Operating Cash Flow of $1,704 million was up 28%, but attributable free cash flow was only $141 million, weighed down by Capital timing and the cost of remobilizing operations in Mali. That is the number that ultimately funds returns, and Barrick has been spending well ahead of it: $1,209 million of buybacks in the quarter under a $3.0 billion authorization, plus a $0.175 quarterly dividend, taking total Shareholder returns to $1.50 billion, up 242% year over year. The Balance Sheet absorbed it. Barrick ended June with $5,927 million of cash and net cash of $1,245 million, having carried $73 million of net Debt a year earlier.

Full-year guidance was left untouched at 2.90 to 3.25 million ounces of gold at an All-In Sustaining Cost of $1,760 to $1,950, and 190,000 to 220,000 tonnes of copper. Capital spending was the one revision, cut to $3.8 billion to $4.2 billion from $4.0 billion to $4.45 billion, a cut that is itself a story.

Nevada Peace, and What the IPO Actually Is

The bigger news landed alongside the results. Barrick and Newmont have resolved every dispute over Nevada Gold Mines, the joint venture Barrick operates. Barrick will contribute its wholly owned Fourmile discovery into the venture; Newmont contributes its Mike and Fiberline deposits; and Newmont will pay Barrick $1.95 billion in cash within 30 days as a balancing payment. The enlarged complex holds close to 100 million ounces.

Crucially, Newmont has consented to the North American IPO, the approval that had been holding the structure hostage. It is worth being precise about what is being sold. Barrick is floating a minority stake in a new entity, North American Barrick, holding the Nevada joint-venture interest, Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic, Fourmile and North American exploration acreage. The primary listing will be in New York with a secondary Toronto line, completion is targeted by the end of 2026, and Barrick intends to keep a significant controlling interest. When the plan was confirmed in February, reports pointed to a stake of roughly 10% to 15%, valuing the offering at around $6.5 billion. This is not a demerger; shareholders are not being handed a new certificate.

The idea did not originate inside Barrick. Elliott Investment Management pushed for a split between the lower-risk Americas Assets and the higher-risk African, Middle Eastern and Asian portfolio, and the board concluded that separation would surface more value.

Two Barricks, Two Chief Executives

Mark Hill, promoted to interim chief executive when Mark Bristow abruptly departed in September 2025, then confirmed permanently in February, will run North American Barrick after separation. On Tuesday the shape of the remaining organization emerged: Sebastiaan Bock, chief operating officer for Africa and the Middle East since 2022, was appointed chief executive, Rest of World, with immediate effect. That portfolio spans Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia Pacific, produces more than two million gold-equivalent ounces a year and is guided to grow output by more than 20% within three years. Bock reports to Hill.

Mali Fixed, Pakistan Parked

A Mining complex in Mali is the quiet reason production beat guidance. After the complex was placed under provisional administration in June 2025, Barrick settled with Mali's government late in the year, regained operational control on 16 December and won a ten-year renewal of the operating permit on 13 February. The restart has run ahead of schedule.

A copper project in Pakistan has gone the other way. In April, citing escalating security problems, Barrick slowed development and extended its project review to mid-2027, warning of significant increases to a capital budget previously pegged at $5.6 billion to $6.0 billion for phase one and $3.3 billion to $3.6 billion for phase two on a full-project basis. The end-2028 production target is no longer safe. A separate copper project in Zambia, by contrast, is still on track for first output at the end of the first quarter of 2028.

Conclusion

Barrick has removed the two things bears complained about most: legal entanglement in Nevada and a shapeless corporate structure. What it has not removed is the cost curve. A 60% EBITDA Margin on $4,400 gold that converts into $141 million of free cash flow is the arithmetic that keeps the shares on roughly ten times earnings while bullion sits near records. The IPO will produce a clean, low-risk North American vehicle, and, by subtraction, a rest-of-world company carrying Mali, Tanzania, Zambia and a Pakistani copper project on indefinite hold. Which of those two the market chooses to price generously is the question that decides whether the discount closes or simply moves.