The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that mining and energy companies are facing a new set of woes -- credit downgrades and writedowns. The Globe's Rachelle Younglai writes that Moody's Investors Service put a dozen mining companies and a swath of oil explorers on notice for a potential downgrade as oil and metal prices remain weak. Barrick Gold warned of a $3-billion (U.S.) impairment charge on its Pascua-Lama gold project in the Andes and a key Dominican Republic gold mine. The writedowns foreshadow another brutal year for the industry. Barrick slashed the assumed price of gold it uses to test for potential impairments to $1,000 an ounce from $1,250 in the previous year. Goldcorp said Friday that it is currently running impairment testing. The company is also expected to record charges when it announces year-end results. "The price of gold is down, so when they do their annual impairment testing, they will have to reduce their assumptions," said Siddarth Subramani, an analyst with Veritas Investment Research. "Goldcorp will probably have a writedown of some sort," he said. In addition, companies are expected to slash their reserves of gold in the ground.