Fresh water is a limited resource. Water use continues to increase around the world to support growing economies and populations. In order to balance the competing claims on the earth’s finite freshwater resources, water use must be carefully managed.

Water is an important sustainability issue at local, regional, and global levels. Providing a critical link between society and nature, water is essential for all varieties of life and ecosystem health. It is also used in business, manufacturing, agricultural and domestic activity.

The amount of water used for ore processing, mine cooling, dust suppression and other activities is closely monitored at Barrick’s properties. Water conservation opportunities are actively pursued. For example, recycling the water used for ore processing helps reduce water use. In order to reduce our use of fresh water, in some locations Barrick is able to use saline water, or water high in salt content, that is unsuitable for agricultural or domestic purposes.

Groundwater pumped away from active mining areas is either used for processing or, if it has not been impacted by mining activities, is returned to groundwater through infiltration ponds, discharged to surface waters if it meets water quality standards or used for irrigation so that the irrigation wells are rested.

At some of our operations, water used for processing and mining is treated and discharged back to the environment under permit. These properties carefully monitor the discharged water for quality and quantity. Most often permit limits or standards are imposed as to the amount of certain constituents that can be discharged in the water. Barrick publicly reports incidents when water use exceeds permit limits.

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