VENTURE CAPITAL POST

As part of its debt reduction exercise, the world's largest bullion producer Barrick Gold Corp has offered to buy back some part of its outstanding debt. Despite the drop in gold prices, The Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp has been selling assets.

The price of gold, down more than a third in three years, is approaching the tipping point where the mining industry would see a spike in the number of producers reducing output or even shutting down operations.

Peru's gold output will likely drop by 20 percent this year and keep falling through 2016 as aging mines churn out less of the precious metal and a government crackdown curbs informal production, a ministry official said on Friday.

A lot of Barrick Gold Corp investors had been in doubt about the direction the company is headed and the role of CEO Peter Munk who was once seen as a visionary man in the gold sector.

Johannesburg-based mining firm Gold Fields Ltd said it had signed an acquisition agreement with Barrick Gold to buy the latter's assets in Australia.

Barrick temporarily stopped the construction of the controversial Pascua-Lama gold mine project due to a court suspension issued last Monday.

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