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We are here with a number of mining executives, and I'm here with Mark Cristo, the CEO of Bear called Mark great to get you on set. So I wanted to start first with what we're seeing globally and the effect that it's having on gold process, record upon record upon record. What's your outlook for where Bullian goes from here?
You know, as you say, Jennifer, everyone's trying very hard to push the gold for us up with what we're seeing is continuation of d Dollarisasian fueled by the actions coming out of Washington and the White House. And on top of that, you know, we've got challenges in the UK, Europe is not in good place, with the French and the Germans, you know, the leaders of the Free world all in the crossis, and of course Middle East and conflicts in every continent. So you know, gold price has
got a lot of upside. Still, I always say the risk is on the upside and it's very much intact that trend.
How much further do you think it has to go? Because some people believe potentially repeaked.
You know, everyone has been saying that you've seen and the equities have been softer than the actual bullion press over twenty twenty four. But I don't think so. And certainly, I mean there's a lot of a lot of reason why the gol pross shouldn't go down, and because it's when you try, and if you try and look at what it's going to take for us to get back to normality in the global economy today, it's not an
easy task. And I think we've seen, you know, damage to the US dollar as a reputational currency, and gold has taken that place. And I think what we've also seen and a lot of people because I'm sure to your next question, you know, bitcoins and all those are not stores of value. They are trading instruments. So gold has rarely arrived as the ultimate store of value, and people are buying the physical. What we've got to do in the mining industry is catch up with the price of gold.
Well, and I want to talk about some of the trends that we're seeing in the mining industry, one of which being M and A. We've seen a lot of that potential activity at least starting to happen. Is your expectation that that will, hopefully you know, strengthen the mining industry and get to some of those goals that you're just mentioning there.
So M and A ready, you know, we need consolidation rather than M and A because we've got too many companies running too fewer assets, and so you need to consolidate, whether it's in the middle, mid tier, bottom tier, or
the big players. But I think what it's really tagging us is as an industry, we haven't invested in our future and we're now seeing what we saw back in the thirty teens of the century in that we're chasing growth inverted commas through acquisition, and we're paying big premiums for them and you know, higher goal price makes it look good for a moment, but things normalize.
What does that mean for Barrack's assets then, and especially on the African cors.
All the assets are very valuable, whatever assets you've got, particularly if you're in gold and copper today.
Thing to exit any of the operation definitely not okay.
No, we constantly look at our core assets because I'm very focused on high quality tier one assets, and so there's a type and there's a market for those non core assets. But we're you know, we've been. We're a long term player. We invest heavily in growth, organic growth. We are pointing to a thirty increase in production by the end of this decade, organic growth at all of your operations across the group. And that's going to happen
without any issuing of shares. In fact, we're buying back shares.
So when are you going to start playing backshares?
We have already started?
Do you plan to continue doing another?
Absolutely? Certainly where the chef RS is sitting at the moment, and one of the best investments we can make is buy back our own share.
What do you think where do you think the share perce then has to go?
I think the ship, Well it's got to go up.
Okay, yes, but then what is your calls then for that?
You know that's the market will judge that. And at the end of the day, what we've got and we're about to bring out our twenty twenty four results. We have one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry. We were able to buy back our shares and were
investing all the time in new opportunities. And more importantly, we're about to build out two really big mining projects, the expansion in Zambia doubling production, and then the big gold and copper asset in Pakistan, which is one of the biggest gold and copper minds that haven't been developed yet in the world.
And Mark, I also want to talk to you about another one of your operations that's in Mali. There's been a lot of focus on what's happening the discussions between the Mali and government and also Barrick where what is the next shoot to drop? Where are we at right now negotiations.
You know, Jennifer, it's been a very sad time for me. You know, I've been in Maley since it was really re established as a democracy. And I said, I've worked with many, many all the governments since nineteen ninety two, and I think we've Mali's got itself in a position where, you know, it's really tried to shake out some short term cash out of the industry, and this industry is the very foundation of its economy, and I think we we need to and so communication, to your point, is
really important. We are in communication. We are working every and were making progress not as fast as I would expected, but I'm sure everyone's a little cautious because that's what happens when you get on the wrong side of everyone.
So you haven't agreed to a number to paying back any.
Of So we haven't reached an agreement on anything yet, but we are making progress and I think that's the positive of these engagement.
Thank you so much. We have to leave it there. Mark Bristow, the CEO of Barrickle, joining us here at Africa Mining and Dava