Barrick Gold's Veladero gold mine in Argentina's San Juan province. Activist mining veteran Mick McMullen says the problems at the Canadian gold miner are fixable.Marcos Brindicci/Reuters
Activist mining veteran Mick McMullen is throwing his name into the ring as a candidate to be the next chief executive officer of Barrick Mining Corp. ABX-T and says the problems at the big Canadian gold miner are fixable.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Mr. McMullen said some of Barrick’s major shareholders have talked to him to gauge his interest in the job and find out what his vision for the company is.
While not confirming if Barrick has already approached him, he said he has the energy and vision for the job, and a strong track record given his history working alongside an activist investor in an earlier campaign to turn around Canadian gold miner Detour Gold Corp. DRGDF
“It’s a really interesting opportunity, but ultimately it will come down to what does the board want,” he said about the prospect of becoming the next CEO of Barrick.
“But certainly it’s not unlike things that I’ve done before.”
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Barrick did not respond to a request for comment.
Barrick, Canada’s second-largest gold miner, cut ties in September with its previous CEO, Mark Bristow. He had been in the job since January, 2019. Under his tenure, Barrick’s performance slipped and its market value dwindled.
Barrick installed Mark Hill as interim CEO as it searches for a permanent replacement for Mr. Bristow.
Mr. McMullen, originally from Australia, is best known for working alongside activist investor Paulson & Co. in a turnaround of Detour Gold about six years ago. Mr. McMullen took over from Detour’s previous underperforming CEO and then executed on a plan that saw the miner’s market value more than double in a seven-month period. Detour under Mr. McMullen was ultimately acquired by Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. KL-N for $4.9-billion.
At Detour Gold, Mr. McMullen installed a new management team and shifted responsibility for running the company’s operations away from head office to the mine site in northern Ontario. He also revamped the incentive structure resulting in employee compensation being better aligned with performance.
Toronto-based Barrick now finds itself in a similar situation to the one Detour was in before Mr. McMullen got involved. It has drastically underperformed competitors such as Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. AEM-T and Kinross Gold Corp. K-T, found itself ensnared in difficult and risky mining jurisdictions, and struggled with significant operational and safety problems that have seen 19 of its workers die in industrial accidents since 2020.
Mr. McMullen says that his biggest priority, if he is the next CEO, would be to listen to shareholders and make sure that company is executing on a plan that management, the board and shareholders all are aligned with.
Barrick’s former CEO, Mr. Bristow, was known for pushing forward on initiatives that many shareholders objected to, including the construction of a giant copper and gold mine in Pakistan, and putting far too much emphasis on jurisdictions such as Tanzania, Papua New Guinea and Mali, all regions in which Barrick has struggled.
Activist investor Elliott Investment Management L.P. recently amassed a $1-billion stake in Barrick and is pushing for a slew of changes, including a split of the company that would separate its North American mines from the other far riskier parts of its business.
“I’m a very big believer in ultimately the shareholders are the owners of the business,” said Mr. McMullen. “Management should do what the shareholders want, within reason.”
He said that several of the options being discussed – including selling or spinning off the African mines, the Reko Diq project in Pakistan, as well as the copper assets, and then merging Barrick’s North American operations with Newmont Corp. NGT-T – all potentially make sense.
Mr. McMullen said his biggest immediate priorities would be addressing operational problems that have seen Barrick miss its production guidance on many occasions, improving its poor safety record, and fixing its corporate culture. Once these problems are solved, it would put Barrick in a much better position to execute on the various M&A options that are on the table, he said.
“These are quite complex problems,” he said. “But I think Barrick as a business is quite solvable for unlocking significant value and you could actually create a real North American gold champion again, like it used to be.”
Barrick was once the most valuable gold company in the world but lost its crown to Newmont in 2019, and then slipped to third in 2024 after being passed by Agnico.
Before joining Detour, Mr. McMullen orchestrated a turnaround at Stillwater Mining Co. that culminated in its sale to Sibanye Gold Ltd. for US$2.2-billion.
After leaving Detour, Mr. McMullen joined the board of OceanaGold Corp. where he helped with another activist campaign.
He subsequently ran MAC Copper Ltd. MTAL-N for a couple of years, acquiring the CSA copper mine from Glencore PLC GLNCY. MAC under his leadership was sold to Harmony Gold for roughly US$1.1-billion just a few weeks ago.