Toronto based gold firm Barrick Gold has agreed to acquire rival gold miner Randgold Resources for roughly US$6 billion in an all-stock deal that will create the world’s biggest gold producer. The combined entity will own five of the world’s 10 lowest-cost gold mines. Barrick has been one of the worst performing senior gold companies of the last ten years and hopes to change its luck when combining with Randgold, one of the top performers in the industry.