Barrick Gold Corp. lowered its cost guidance and announced further debt reductions on Tuesday as it delivered another round of strong quarterly results.

The world’s biggest gold miner reported adjusted earnings of US$127 million, or 11 US cents a share, which was a penny better than the consensus analyst estimate. Significantly, the company maintained its 2016 production guidance while lowering its all-in sustaining cost guidance to between US$760 and US$810 an ounce (down from US$775 to US$825 an ounce).

“Every action we take is focused on one overarching objective: growing free cash flow per share,” Toronto-based Barrick said in a statement.

Barrick and other gold miners are finally getting help from the gold price, which jumped 16 per cent in the first quarter. That was the best quarterly performance in 26 years.

Barrick has cut costs significantly during the bear market of the last three years, positioning it well for this turnaround in prices. The company’s stock price has doubled so far in 2016.

Under chairman John Thornton, who took over the job from Peter Munk in 2014, Barrick has put together a string of solid financial results. He has overhauled the company in a very short time, removing middle management jobs and trying to restore the entrepreneurial culture from Barrick’s early days. Most of the senior management jobs have changed hands as well.

One of Thornton’s major priorities is fixing the balance sheet, which became over-levered because of an ill-timed copper acquisition and the company’s bungling of its Pascua-Lama project. Barrick cut debt by more than US$3 billion last year, and plans to reduce it by another US$2 billion in 2016. The company said on Tuesday that it has already lowered debt by US$842 million so far in 2016.

Barrick produced 1.28 million ounces of gold in the first quarter, and said it is on track to produce between five and 5.5 million ounces this year. That is far below the eight million ounces the company was producing several years ago. But like other gold miners, Barrick has shifted its focus to maximizing cash flow instead of production.

In the long-term, Barrick hopes to grow cash flow through development of its Goldrush project in Nevada as well as expansions of its Cortez, Turquoise Hill and Lagunas Norte operations.

“We will manage our portfolio to grow our cash margin over growing ounces, and we will assess existing and new opportunities, both internal and external, with that goal in mind,” the company said.

Barrick holds its annual meeting on Tuesday.