The plaintiffs sought leave under the Securities Act to commence a class action against Barrick Gold Corporation and certain officers/directors for alleged misrepresentations in public disclosures concerning the Pascua-Lama mining project.
The court dismissed most of the alleged misrepresentations due to a lack of precision in pleading and insufficient credible evidence, particularly regarding accounting and contingent liability claims, and October 2011, May 2012, November 2012, and March 2013 capex/scheduling claims.
However, the court found a reasonable possibility of success for certain capex budget and scheduling misrepresentations made in February and March 2012, but required further submissions on the issue of public correction for these.
Claims against two individual defendants were dismissed due to their tenure or lack of evidence.
