The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that Barrick's chief executive officer Mark Bristow was upbeat on the company's second quarter earnings call following a half year at the top job. The Post's Gabriel Friedman writes that there was much self-congratulations for negotiating the purchase its troubled subsidiary in Tanzania, trimming overhead and making other cost-saving moves that helped propel its stock 50 per cent since June. "That's a lot of boxes ticked," he bragged. Mr. Bristow has also benefited from several fortunate events including a run-up in the price of gold, all of which have helped make Barrick the world's "most-valued" gold mining company with $31.7-billion (U.S.) of market capitalization. It contrasts with Newmont Goldcorp, its long-time rival, which briefly took the title of "most valued." It was hit with a string of bad news, including a fire at one of its mines, a 50-day labour protest and other challenges. In the past year, both companies completed transformational multibillion-dollar mergers -- with Newmont acquiring Goldcorp in April and Barrick taking over Randgold in January -- which catapulted them ahead of the rest of the industry in terms of their size and gold production.