08:11 AM EDT, 09/29/2025 (MT Newswires) -- (Updating share price in first paragraph, and adding National Bank commentary from the fifth paragraph)

Barrick Mining Corporation ( B ) was at last look up more than 2% in US premarket trade Monday as it appointed Mark Hill as group COO and Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, following the departure of Mark Bristow, while the company moved to try and ease any market concerns around this news by saying it continues to perform in line with its full year expectations as set out at Q2 results on August 11, 2025.

A statement noted that Hill, who is currently responsible for Barrick's Latam and Asia Pacific regions, is a seasoned mining executive with 30 years of experience. He joined Barrick in 2006 and has experience in strategy, corporate development and leading major projects across the world, and was also integral in the initial decision to undertake exploration at the Fourmile gold project in Nevada.

Meanwhile, the search committee of the board, chaired by Brett Harvey, has embarked on a process with the support of a leading executive search firm to identify a permanent President and CEO.

Monday's statement also noted Bristow is stepping down as President and CEO after nearly seven years having joined the company following its merger with Randgold in 2019. Since the merger, the statement said, Barrick has returned US$6.7 billion to shareholders and reduced net debt by $4 billion. Most recently, the company delivered "solid" Q2 operating performance, strong cash flows, an enhanced quarterly dividend and strong share price performance.

National Bank noted it had recently upgraded Barrick to Outperform given its year to date cost control performance across its asset base as well as the growing potential of Fourmile. National Bank said the discovery and future advancement of Fourmile both increases the medium-term growth outlook for the company, and presents a "significant value driver given the high-grade nature of the deposit and proximity to existing infrastructure".

"Increased value in the company's Nevada JV provides an improved geopolitical risk profile and given the JV agreement with Newmont presents a more economical opportunity for Newmont to acquire Barrick ahead of more significant advancement, albeit Government/regulatory approvals are likely to impede any planned combination," the bank added

According to National Bank, the recent rally in gold prices has supported a move to more discounted valuations, including Barrick). "A resolution in Mali would serve as a meaningful near-term catalyst to support a further re-rating as at current levels, we don't believe the market is ascribing much in recoverable value from the country," the bank said.

National Bank derives its C$60.00 target price from a 100% weighted 7.0x NTM EV/EBITDA target multiple, implying a P/NAV multiple of 1.30x. ABX currently trades at 5.3x the bank's EV/2026E EBITDA and 1.05x NAV vs. senior peers at 7.5x and 1.11x, respectively.