The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition that Barrick says that it is back on track to meet its full-year production targets even as it posted an 8.5-per-cent drop in first-quarter gold output due to the impact of COVID-19-driven lockdowns. A Reuters dispatch to the Post says that the mining industry has been bracing for a prolonged drop in commodity prices and has been worried that the virus outbreak could fuel a rare simultaneous drop in both supply and demand for metals. Barrick posted gold production of 1.25 million ounces for the first quarter, compared with 1.37 million ounces a year earlier. The miner said copper output from its three mines -- Lumwana in Zambia, Zaldivar in Chile and Jabal Sayid in Saudi Arabia -- rose 8.5 per cent from a year earlier to 115 million pounds, adding that sales of the metal also improved in the quarter. Barrick had forecast full-year attributable gold production in the range of 4.8 million ounces to 5.2 million ounces and copper production between 440 million pounds and 500 million pounds. The miner, however, warned that realized prices for copper in the first quarter were expected to be between 12 and 14 per cent below the market price amid the pandemic.