The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, Nov. 4, edition that Deutsche Bank analyst Jorge Beristain downgraded Barrick Gold ($13.54 (Canadian)) to "hold" from "buy" and slashed his price target to $16 (U.S.) from $22 (U.S.), citing concerns that steepening losses in the gold price may hinder the company's ability to pay down its debt. The Globe's Darcy Keith, Jody White and Tim Shufelt write in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Beristain is also worried about a deteriorating outlook for Barrick's copper business, which he says could result in further writedowns. Mr. Beristain says: "Despite an operationally solid third quarter, we (again) are increasingly concerned on Barrick's ability to deleverage its balance sheet given headwinds facing the gold price, dimming prospects for its copper business and lack of strategic action on partnerships. ... We have removed from our model contributions for Pascua-Lama, a key gold growth project which we had anticipated would attract a strategic partner to help shoulder remaining capex toward a projected first quarter 2018 production start-up. Recent news of proposed higher royalties in Zambia will stretch its Lumwana copper mine and could result in further writedowns."