Comprehensive stakeholder engagement throughout the life of our mines is the cornerstone to establishing and maintaining long term community support for the Company’s operations. Thorough stakeholder identification and analysis, along with transparent, inclusive and ongoing interactions and appropriate community feedback mechanisms, help to build trust among our stakeholders. Because we have operations in many countries around the world, our key stakeholder groups can vary from site to site. Typically, our stakeholders include:
Constructive engagement with our stakeholders is a critical element in our commitment to responsible mining. As global populations become increasingly connected, we are developing more effective ways of keeping people informed and receiving feedback. We maintain communication in a number of ways. Our regional offices and mining operations use public information meetings (both regularly scheduled and ad hoc), open houses, site tours, community and employee newsletters, web-based communications, both formal and informal question and answer mechanisms, and one-on-one discussions. At the corporate level, we supplement and expand this communication through the distribution of our annual Responsibility Report with its feedback card, web-based communications and reporting, the quarterly Barrick employee newsletter and news releases.
Community engagement is a continuous process throughout the life of the mine in order to receive public input and address concerns. Activities vary depending on the stage of an operation. More meetings are held during development and construction activities; sometimes government or community meetings occur weekly. Once a mine has been operating for a number of years, meetings may involve, for example, quarterly community/regional council updates and public advisory meetings. During pre-closure and closure, the number and type of community engagement activities will often change again, as we explain the changes to the operations and the plans for closure.