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Barrick Gold president Kelvin Dushnisky gets ready to speak during the company's annual general meeting in Toronto on Tuesday, April 25, 2017.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

Barrick Gold Corp., the world's largest producer of the precious metal, is "nicely on track" to meet its debt-reduction target for 2017, President Kelvin Dushnisky said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

The company has reduced debt by about $1.23-billion so far this year, and is on track for $1.45-billion in total by the end of 2017, Dushnisky said at the Denver Gold Forum, an annual industry conference being held in Colorado Springs.

Barrick is in the midst of a multiyear strategy to cut costs and sell assets to lower its debt. The gold miner is looking to end 2017 with $6.4-billion of debt, the lowest since early 2010, according to a report last month from Bloomberg Intelligence. The company has set a goal of $5-billion in total debt by the end of 2018, a level that was last reached in 2008.

For 2018, the company has a target of a further $1.45-billion in debt reduction.

Asked if that goal is achievable without more asset sales, Dushnisky said "we'll see." Barrick is planning to use a "combination of cash on the balance sheet, cash flow, potential divestments if they make sense," to reach its goal, he said.

"We're not forced to do anything," Dushnisky said referring to asset sales. "If the situation arose where there was a strong price for something, we'd consider it."

"We wouldn't sell a core asset," he said.

Toronto-based Barrick considers five mines as core assets: Cortez and Goldstrike, its stake in Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic, Lagunas Norte in Peru and Veladero. The company has viewed its Turquoise Ridge mine in Nevada as an "emerging core" asset.

In 2017, Barrick sold 50 per cent of Veladero to Shandong Gold Group in a $960-million deal, but the company was willing to make that sale because it offered broader "strategic" benefits including potentially partnering to develop Pascua Lama and the El Indio Gold Belt along the Chile-Argentine border, he said.

In terms of Australia's Kalgoorlie Super Pit mine, in which Barrick owns a 50 per cent stake, the company "likes" owning the asset, but would consider a sale "for the right price," Dushnisky said.

Newmont Mining Corp., the No. 2 gold producer, operates Kalgoorlie in addition to owning 50 per cent and the company has previously expressed interest in buying Barrick's stake. Failure to reach a deal with Newmont isn't "cultural," Dushnisky said.

"If it made sense economically for their shareholders and for ours, there'd be nothing that would prevent us from doing something together, a transaction," Dushnisky said. "We certainly don't take the view that we'd do something with someone first before Newmont. Absolutely not. Whatever makes the most sense."

National Bank chief economist Stefane Marion says gold can be a safe haven for investments in times of geopolitical uncertainty. Marion outlines how to invest in the commodity if you aren’t comfortable buying physical gold.

The Canadian Press

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