Daily Times

Barrick Gold is not interested in bidding for Anglo American, which last week received a $39 billion takeover offer from BHP, and is building its own copper portfolio, the Canadian miner’s CEO Mark Bristow said on Wednesday.

If BHP’s proposed acquisition of Anglo is successful, it would create one of the world’s biggest copper miners.

Analysts and investors expect rival bids to emerge after BHP’s offer was rejected last week by Anglo, which said it was opportunistic, significantly undervaluing the company and its future prospects.

“We are not interested in bidding for Anglo American, as we are building (copper assets) of our own,” Bristow told Reuters.

Bristow is betting on developing the Reko Diq copper project in Pakistan in which it holds a 50 percent stake, the first phase of which is expected to cost $5.5 billion.

Barrick is in talks with the International Finance Corporation and other agencies to raise at least $2 billion for the first phase of the project, Bristow added.

Reko Diq, one of the biggest yet-to-be-developed copper mines in the world, is also 50 percent owned by the government of Pakistan. Saudi Arabia is in talks to buy part of the stake from the Pakistan government.

In Mali, where Barrick has a gold mine, the military-led government was last year in talks with miners over a change to its mining law that could see it boost state and private Malian interests in new projects to 35 percent from up to 20 percent previously.

However, Bristow said that the company has received written assurances from the junta that there was no threat of its assets being nationalized.