The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Aug. 7, edition that Barrick Gold is weighing every single option available. The Globe's Tim Kiladze writes that Barrick wants to immediately slash its crippling debt load and to cut everyday costs. Earlier this year, Barrick zeroed in on its debt load, setting a goal to reduce it by $3-billion by 2016. It is already 90 per cent of the way there, largely because of asset sales. Barrick realizes investors are fast losing hope in gold miners. Mr. Kiladze says Barrick has come to realize it cannot keep holding out hope that it will return to its glory days, when investors gave it extra respect for being the world's biggest gold miner. The market today looks dramatically different, even though the gold price still hovers around $1,100 per ounce, and that has forced Barrick to throw everything at the wall. Major changes announced this quarter include: cutting the dividend 60 per cent to two cents per share quarterly; putting six more projects in Nevada and Montana up for sale; and setting a goal to cut $2-billion out of its spending budget by the end of 2016, with a particular focus on operating costs. In February, chairman John Thornton said Barrick had lost its way.