-->Barrick insiders cashing in options

Gold At A High

David Pett, Financial Post
Published: Saturday, September 29, 2007

With gold prices hitting a 27-year high yesterday after breaching US$750 per ounce on persistent fears of a weakening U.S. dollar, talk among giddy gold prognosticators turned once again to speculation on just how high the price for the precious metal can go.

Among the bullish seers is Barrick Gold Inc. president and CEO Geoffrey Wilkins. He told reporters during the Denver Gold Forum earlier this week that gold should hit US$800 by the end of the year. When asked about gold eventually reaching US$1,000, he added,"it's possible."

Curious, then, that Barrick executives are lining up these days to exercise their options only to sell them promptly for a tidy sum. Since Sept. 1, 2007, 33 Barrick 'insiders" have cashed in a total of 1,627,856 options.


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Font: ****On Sept. 7. Mr. Wilkins himself exercised 100,000 options for company shares, selling them later in the day for a $1,130,304 profit. And the folks at Barrick aren't alone in the selloff. Insiders at other Canadian gold miners, including Kinross, IAMGOLD and Goldcorp, just to name a few, were also busy cashing in.

But given the bullish outlook expressed by Mr. Wilkins and others, wouldn't it have made sense to hold on to those shares a little longer? Maybe not, since gold stocks have drastically underperformed in comparison to the rise in gold. Since the start of the year, the S&P TSX Gold Index, is down more than 13% while gold prices over the same period are up almost 6%.

dpett@nationalpost.com