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One person who likely sensed a bargain was George Soros.

Filings by Soros Fund Management, which the billionaire investor chairs, shows that the fund acquired more than 19 million shares of Barrick in the first quarter of 2016, giving it a 1.7 per cent stake in the miner. Those shares were worth $264 million at the end of March, making Barrick the fund’s largest holding.

The bet by Soros on Barrick helps give insight into what has been one of the hottest investment plays of 2016.

For Soros, it was certainly a profitable move, as shares have surged nearly 140 per cent this year. On Tuesday the stock was up another 1.68 per cent, or 41 cents, to $24.82.

But he was just one of many investors that piled into Barrick and other Canadian gold miners in the first quarter, say analysts.

Many managers had emptied out of gold companies in the past few years amid a commodity bear market. That left those same managers vulnerable, however, to being under-exposed during a rally.

“They’d all gone to zero weight,” said Allan. “It was really under-owned, especially within broad-based funds.”

The stock’s rally is a victory for John Thornton, the executive chairman of Barrick and a former Goldman Sachs executive. Thornton was brought on as co-chairman by founder Peter Munk in 2012 and over the next few years faced a torrent of criticism for his compensation (his pay package was $17 million in 2012, including an $11.9 million signing bonus).

But Thornton has earned praise as of late for his aggressive trimming of Barrick’s debt (he has brought it down from $13 billion to under $10 billion). The company reported earnings in the first quarter of US$127 million, beating analyst expectations.