Barrick Gold chief executive officer Mark Bristow suggests several reasons why a move to the U.S. makes sense for the company, including access to a more efficient marketplace, and the ability to attract a bigger pool of shareholders.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
Barrick Gold Corp. ABX-T is considering redomiciling to the United States from Canada, and under a Donald Trump administration that could happen sooner rather than later, Barrick chief executive Mark Bristow told The Globe and Mail’s editorial board.
On Thursday, he mapped out several reasons why a move to the U.S. makes sense, including access to a more efficient marketplace, and the ability to attract a bigger pool of shareholders.
Redomiciling to the U.S. could put Barrick in the S&P 500 index, which would attract automatic buying from scores of mutual funds and exchange traded funds that track indexes. Colorado-based Newmont Corp. is the only gold mining company in the S&P 500.
“There’s a logic to it,” Mr. Bristow said.
Toronto-headquartered Barrick is one of the few large Canadian mining companies left in Canada. Over the past two decades, scores of stalwart domestic miners have been scooped up by foreign competitors and many head offices have been closed down.
Barrick already has a significant U.S. shareholder base and massive mining operations in the country. Barrick, alongside Newmont, runs several giant gold mines in Nevada that dwarf its operations in Canada.
“There’s no doubt that that market is the right place to be,” said Mr. Bristow. “How to get there has always been our challenge, and you know maybe with the Trump administration, things change,” he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has been aggressively pushing an “America First” agenda, and has called for foreign companies to both invest in the U.S. and relocate there. Mr. Trump has made it clear foreign companies situated in the U.S. will be insulated from tariffs, but also benefit from some of the lowest corporate tax rates on the planet.
Moving to the U.S. is a complicated, costly and lengthy process, involving intricate tax considerations. An easier way to redomicile would be through making a major U.S. acquisition, but there aren’t a lot of candidates that offer value right now, Mr. Bristow said.
Several of this country’s biggest miners have been acquired by foreign buyers over the past few decades, including Falconbridge Ltd., Inco Inc., Alcan Inc. and Goldcorp Inc. Two years ago, Switzerland’s Glencore PLC, which already owns massive Canadian nickel mines that were once owned by Falconbridge, tried to buy Vancouver’s Teck Resources Ltd. While Glencore didn’t succeed in buying all of Teck, it eventually acquired all of its B.C. coal operations.
Clive Johnson, CEO of Vancouver-based mid-cap gold company B2Gold Corp., said hearing about Barrick weighing a move to the U.S. is disappointing, given how much the Canadian mining sector has already been hollowed out over the past few decades.
“We’re a proudly Canadian company and wouldn’t consider a move like that,” Mr. Johnson said.
Hungarian immigrant Peter Munk founded Barrick in 1983 and eventually built it into the world’s biggest gold company.
Mr. Munk was known as being fiercely loyal to Canada. Around the time, Inco and Falconbridge were being sold to foreign buyers, he marched into the offices of The Globe and demanded it draw attention to what he saw as the gutting of Canada.
When Mr. Munk tried to merge Barrick with Newmont, the deal was called off in part because of Newmont’s plan to move Barrick’s head office to the U.S. That was a deal-breaker for Mr. Munk, who demanded it stay in Toronto.
Mr. Munk died at the age of 90 in 2018.
Barrick has been loosening its ties to Canada for about a decade, and much of that was driven first by Barrick chairman John Thornton, who joined the company in 2012, and later Mr. Bristow, who became CEO in 2019. He took over after Barrick acquired Randgold Resources for US$6-billion. Mr. Bristow ran the Africa-focused miner for two decades.
After joining Barrick, Mr. Bristow made deep job cuts at Barrick’s head office in Toronto, slashing the headcount from 130 to 65. Around the time he came aboard, Barrick also overhauled its board, and cut ties with several Canadian directors. The company also quietly moved its domicile to British Columbia, which has far looser requirements than Ontario over how many board members must be Canadian.
Mr. Bristow lives in Mauritius and only occasionally visits Canada. Mr. Thornton lives in Palm Beach, Fla.
While Barrick operates the Hemlo mine in Ontario, in a recent lawsuit the company argued that it had very few ties to Canada, characterizing its head office as largely an administrative outpost, employing fewer than 55 people.
Barrick’s major operations are in Nevada, Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific.
Mr. Bristow in 2020 told The Globe that getting into the S&P500 could be a boon for Barrick, given that index demand “would increase substantially.” But back then he ruled out redomiciling to the U.S., in part because of the blowback he might face.
“Remember all those emotions over Canada, and me, and the head office and all that stuff,” he said.