TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The world's biggest gold-miner, Toronto-based Barrick Gold, has completely eliminated its fixed-price gold hedges, well ahead of the timeframe laid out by the company itself three months ago.

The firm moved quickly to raise its exposure to what it believes will be rising gold prices, CEO Aaron Regent indicated on Tuesday.

When Barrick announced in September that it would remove its gold hedges within 12 months, the company had a total hedge book of 9,5-million ounces, of which three-million ounces were fixed-price forward sales and the balance was floating spot price contracts.

The company has now eliminated all the fixed-price hedges and the obligations on the floating contracts have been reduced to $0,7-billion.

"Our positive view on the gold price led us to accelerate the elimination of these contracts ahead of the schedule we had established,” Regent said in a statement.

The firm expects to take a final $300-million charge in the fourth quarter because of a change in the mark-to-market value of some hedges before they were eliminated.

After announcing it would tackle its hedge book, Barrick raised $3,9-billion in the biggest primary equity offering in Canadian history and, a month later, issued $1,25-billion in new long-term debt securities.

"Barrick's gold production and reserves are now completely unhedged and our capital structure has also been simplified," Regent said.

“With their elimination, we no longer have any gold price-related mark-to-market exposure and will now fully benefit from increases in the gold price.”

Next year, Barrick expects to produce between 7,7-million and 8,1-million ounces of gold, at lower cash costs than in 2009.

The group has forecast output for this year of 7,2-million to 7,6-million ounces.

Barrick shares rose 7,45% on Tuesday, to C$48,20 apiece by 16:35 in Toronto.

Earlier in the day, the gold price set another new record, rising above $1 200/oz for the first time.

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