Gold miner looks beyond yellow metal

Exploring new avenues, Barrick Gold Corporation, the largest pure gold mining company in the world today unveiled plans to venture into other precious metal segment.

Speaking on the occasion of the Company's 'Investor Day' in Toronto, President and CEO, Greg Wilkins touted company’s certain pipeline projects.

Besides gold, the gold miner is into a nickel project in Tanzania, platinum-palladium projects in Russia and South Africa, along with a copper and gold property in Pakistan, he revealed.

"Good gold assets are a scarce resource,” Wilkins said eying the rapidly depleting resources, flat production, rising costs and long approval times to open new mines.

“At a time when discoveries are scarce and new projects rare within the gold industry, no other gold company has a comparable pipeline," Wilkins proclaimed.

Barrick's latest ventures will dwell upon the latest types of mines that the Company effectively brought into production in the past two years.

The industry’s only company posting an “A” rated balance sheet, Barrick Gold is hopeful that its supplementary-metal projects will provide an opportunity to unlock additional shareholder value.

Meanwhile, shares of Barrick Gold fell another 78 cents to close at $36.47 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, even though the company posted an almost double net income as price of bullion soared.

The net income for the year 2006 stood at U.S.$418 million or 48 cents a share as compared to U.S.$175 million or 32 cents, a year earlier.

However, market analysts buoyed by the financial results questioned the strategy of venturing into other areas outside the company's core focus.

"It's a little bit risky. You might find yourself with a base-metal multiple," Steve Butler of Canaccord Adams said.

Nonetheless, Barrick Gold plans to maintain its world's best gold mining status even after venturing into new avenues.