Barrick, which has the highest debt of any gold miner, began 2015 with a $13.1 billion in debt, which it had whittled to $11.2 billion as of Wednesday.
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The company also said it has just begun a second round in the sales process for six USA gold assets that it wants to divest and expects to sign at least one agreement before year-end.
The Toronto-based miner is scheduled to report results for the quarter ended September 30 after markets close on Wednesday.
Analysts had expected the company to earn $0.07 per share, according figures compiled by Thomson Reuters.
Barrick, which reports in American dollars, said in its last quarterly report that it was slashing its dividend by 60 per cent and would put a few of its mines up for sale as part of almost $2 billion in cuts.
At the start of the year, the company has set $3 billion debt reduction target. Newmont’s all-in-sustaining costs, a measure to compare miners’ performance, were $835 an ounce in the third quarter, compared with $995 a year earlier.
Barrick’s average realized gold price in the quarter was US$1,125, compared with US$1,285 in the third quarter of 2014.
Full-year gold production is expected to be between 6.1 million and 6.3 million ounces, as Barrick lowered the top end of the band from 6.4 million ounces to reflect expectations of lower gold production from Acacia Mining Plc.
There was a amusing sound that hasn’t been heard in several years on Barrick Gold Corp.’s latest earnings conference call: optimism. The company said that it will be using its free cash flows to achieve the debt target in due time.
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The miner said its all-in sustaining costs, the industry cost benchmark, were $771 per ounce in the quarter, compared with $834 an ounce in the same quarter a year ago.
