EZ

you had mentioned either GG or ABX in the past as having some interest perhaps in KRY. It looks as though you are spot-on when it comes to the 'big boys' looking at less then desirable parts of the world.

Teutracker

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Barrick Gold Corp., the world's largest gold producer, may use some of the US$3.5-billion it raised this week in a share sale for acquisitions of "higher-risk projects," the company's chief executive officer said.

"Raising equity proceeds allows us to de-leverage the balance sheet, ensure we have a strong capital structure and financial capacity to support our operations, fund our projects and the capacity to look at new acquisitions as well," Barrick chief executive Aaron Regent said on Thursday at a mining conference in Toronto. "We'll be looking at less developed countries. We have some room to take on higher-risk projects."

Regent didn't specify which projects he was referring to.

The company sold 94.8 million common shares for US$36.95 apiece, Barrick said on Sept. 9 in a statement. Underwriters had an option to increase the sale to US$4-billion in what is the biggest stock offering in Canadian history.

"If they found something in a higher political-risk region, their large profile of generally low political-risk assets could absorb it," Adam Graf, an analyst with Dahlman Rose & Co. in New York, said on Thursday in a telephone interview.

Barrick raised the funds to unwind fixed-price bullion contracts as part of efforts to tie the company's valuation more closely to the price of gold, which rose this week to the highest price since March 2008. Bullion producers are trying to increase reserves to benefit from the higher prices, which have been haven't dipped below US$900 an ounce since May.

Barrick rose C$1.28, or 3.2%, to C$40.99 on Thursday in Toronto Stock Exchange trading. The shares have declined 8.3% this year.

Barrick is the third-worst performer this year on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Gold and Silver Index. Vancouver- based Goldcorp Inc., the second-largest producer of the metal, has risen 15% in 2009.

Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd., a Canadian gold producer that's quadrupling output, may use rising revenue to increase dividends and buy assets in the Arctic and Mexico, chief executive Sean Boyd said in an interview last month.

Barrick said on May 7 that it will start building its US$3-billion Pascua-Lama mine project on the Chile-Argentina border after the two South American countries resolved a tax dispute over the project. The mine is estimated to yield on average as much as 700,000 ounces of gold and 25 million ounces of silver annually over an expected life of at least 25 years after it starts operations in 2013.

Barrick began production at its Buzwagi mine in Tanzania in May. The Cortez Hills project in Nevada and Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic are meeting their budgets and are on schedule to start production in 2010 and 2011, respectively, the company has said.

Bloomberg News