Barrick Profit Falls, Sees Pascua-Lama Costs Rising

Barrick Gold Corp, the world's largest gold miner, on Thursday reported a 35 percent decline in second-quarter profit and warned that capital costs on one of its biggest growth projects will be much higher than previously forecast.

Net income in the quarter fell to $750 million or 75 cents a share, down from a profit of $1.16 billion, or $1.16 a share, a year earlier.

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Excluding one-time items, earnings in the period were 78 cents a share, down from $1.12 a share.

The company revised up the cost to build its Pascua-Lama project, which straddles the border between Chile and Argentina. The price tag for the massive gold mine is now expected to be 50 to 60 percent higher than the top-end of the previous estimate of $4.7 billion to $5 billion. The project, which was due to start production in 2013, is now only expected to begin production in mid-2014.