Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX), the largest producer of the metal, said its head of corporate development will leave the company amid an internal reorganization. Rick McCreary, who was head of CIBC World Markets Inc.’s mining investment banking group before joining Barrick in 2011, will depart at the end of the month, said Andy Lloyd, a Barrick spokesman. The corporate development team is being disbanded and Toronto-based Barrick will form a new group called business development, Lloyd said today in an interview. Barrick’s focus in the past two years has largely been on cutting costs, selling less profitable mines and improving investor returns. It’s been spurred on by a plunge in the price of gold, cost overruns at its biggest development project and writedowns on its acquisition of Equinox Minerals Ltd. Merger talks with Newmont Mining Corp. broke down in April. There have been other personnel changes at Barrick recently. In July, Barrick said Chief Executive Officer Jamie Sokalsky will step down in September. While it didn’t name a successor, the company appointed two other executives as co-presidents. John Thornton took over as chairman in April. McCreary’s departure and the disbanding of the corporate development team was reported earlier by Reuters. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-26/barrick-gold-corporate-development-head-mccreary-to-leave.html