Aaron Regent Takes Over CEO Reigns of Barrick Gold

Aaron Regent became the head of Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) today, succeeding company founder and chairman Peter Munk, 81. Munk had stepped into the role when former CEO Greg Wilkins had to go on leave for medical reasons. Wilkins stepped down in July.

While Regent is one of the younger CEOs in the industry, he comes with a lot of experience in mining, as a co-CEO and senior managing partner of Brookfield Asset Management, and also as president of Falconbridge Ltd., a global mining company.

Munk said concerning hiring Regent to head the company he launched:

"I watched that (sale) from the sidelines and I think there was nobody in the mining industry who would not have had the greatest admiration for Aaron's sense of strategic evaluation. I think truly for a man who is 40-odd-years-old and has Aaron's kind of experience, the future is unlimited."

Laying out his priorities for the company, Regent said he's going to focus on exploration, project development and acquisitions, but quickly added that things aren't going to be changing much going ahead, as things are operationally solid.

His first steps will be to travel to visit the assets of the company to build up and understanding of the entire company, along with spending some time getting to know his management team and receiving their input.

Last quarter the company reported net profits of $254 million, down from the $345 million last year.

Barrick Gold is the largest gold mining company in the world.

Profits for Barrick Gold Drop 26% in Third Quarter

Reporting on its third-quarter profits Thursday, Barrick Gold Corp. announced they fell by 26 percent to $97 million, saying that downward pressure came mainly from the impairment charges.

While gold prices were higher than projected for Barrick, sales dropped by 4 percent to offset the higher price.

Net income for the quarter ending September 30 reached $254 million, or 29 cents a share, down significantly from the $345 million, or 39 cents a share enjoyed in the third quarter of 2007. Analysts had been looking for about 47 cents a share.

The impairment charges came from investments in Highland Gold Mining LTD, a company based in Russia, as well as junior mining companies.

Revenue did increase from $1.68 billion to $1.88 billion for the quarter.

Gold sales came in at 1.8 million ounces at $872 an ounce during the quarter, in contrast to the 1.89 million ounces sold last year during the same period at $681 an ounce. Costs increased year-over-year, rising from $365 an ounce to $466 an ounce.

The company stands by its guidance of production of between 7.6 million to 7.8 million ounces of gold, with costs of between $425 an ounce to $445 an ounce.

Chief Executive Officer Peter Munk said in looking ahead he is very positive on the outlook for gold.