This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist.Discovery and development are the only true drivers of value creation in the mining industry, Barrick president and CEO Dr Mark Bristow highlighted on Wednesday, when this standout gold and copper mining company once again declared a dividend in reporting its first quarter results that position the company well to meet its full year targets.The year-on-year net earnings per share of the New York- and Toronto-listed company headed by South African-born Bristow increased by 143% for the quarter, while adjusted first-quarter net earnings per share grew by 36%. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)Barrick's investment thesis is that its embedded ability to grow copper and gold production will amplify its profitability in a rising commodity market."Exploration is to a mining company what research and development Is to the pharmaceutical industry," Bristow reiterated amid gold production by Barrick ramping up steadily and a globally significant organic copper growth project on the way in Africa.Foreseeing the emergence of the copper's critical importance to the greening of the global grid, Barrick made the expansion of its copper portfolio a strategic priority at the time of its merging five years ago with Bristow's highly successful Africa-linked Randgold Resources.While global pursuit of renewable energy is boosting copper price, with the red metal rising by 15% in the first quarter of this year, unprecedented conflicts, plus economic uncertainty have driven the gold price up 15% last year, and by the same percentage so far this year, taking the precious metal to record highs and confirming once again its status as the ultimate safe haven asset.Disappointing for Barrick and its peers, however, is that their share prices are lagging the gold price, pointing to more belief in investment in gold than in gold producers, even with change accelerating across the world, uncertainty becoming more permanent, and chaotic events a lot more common, Bristow noted in his first-quarter presentation covered by Mining Weekly.Meanwhile, Barrick is continuing its search for tier one opportunities across the world's gold and copper regions, with the company's highly successful brownfields and greenfields exploration driving Barrick's unparalleled ability to replace its mined reserves and greenfields programnes are expanding opportunities around the globe.Even in mature gold districts, Barrick is managing to advance pipelines of exciting greenfields targets.Continued work on its orebody models continually spotlights significant, untested potential, demonstrating how the updating of geological models can be a very fruitful stimulator of reserve growth.Ahead of consensus for the quarter, Barrick's attributable earnings before tax depreciation and amortisation margin rose by 5% to 41% and the operating cash flows remained strong at $760-million.The quarter dividend was maintained at 10 c a share and a strong balance sheet is underpinning the company's organic growth projects, enabling a significant rising production profile to be projected for the next five years and beyond.AFRICAN COPPER MINING REVIVALWhile the copper industry as a whole has traditionally suffered from under-investment, the search for new resources to boost production has now accelerated.But the long lead times needed to turn discoveries into developed mines mean that supply is unable to meet the growing global demand, driven by the worldwide energy transition to stave off devastating climate change.A thorough review of its global assets has turned Lumwana in the central African state of Zambia, for example, into a large copper project that, once again, has a lower cost organic rather than riskier acquisition foundation.In a manner positive for all stakeholders, the Barrick team restructured and re-engineered the struggling Lumwana operation back to health and then embarked on a supe...