Torongo — Barrick Gold Corp. unveiled a $3-billion (U.S.) share offering late Tuesday and a hit of $5.6-billion to its third-quarter profit.

The money raised in the bought deal offering will be used to eliminate all fixed-price gold hedges within the next year and part of its floating gold contracts.

The world's biggest gold miner is issuing 81.2 million common shares at $36.95 each in a deal with a syndicate of underwriters led by RBC Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley & Co., J.P. Morgan Securities and Scotia Capital.

“The gold hedge book has been a particular concern among our shareholders and the broader market which we believe has obscured the many positive developments within the company,” chief executive officer Aaron Regent said in a statement.

“As a result of today's decision, we have addressed that concern and maintained our financial flexibility. With the industry's largest production and reserves, Barrick provides exceptional leverage to the gold price, which we expect will be further enhanced as we build our new generation of low cost mines.”

Barrick also announced the hit to earnings due to the change in accounting treatment for the contracts.

The miner's announcement came after markets closed, and after gold temporarily jumped above $1,000 an ounce to its highest level since March, 2008.