Message from the President and CEO

The past year was one of substantial progress in our drive to build a Barrick which will be the world’s most valued gold and copper mining company in every sense of that word.

We continued to invest in our future through the development of capital projects that will expand and enhance an operating platform which already holds some of the industry’s best assets. Our exploration programs more than replenished that base while also broadening our horizons by finding fresh targets in new regions. We sharpened our skills and nurtured a new generation of leaders. We mapped out and are advanced on a clear road to achievable emissions reduction targets. We strengthened the many stakeholder partnerships that secure our social licence to operate in our host countries across the world.

The creation of long-term value, which is Barrick’s prime objective, requires a sustainable strategy. Our operations all have business plans for the next 10 years and beyond – plans based not on wishful thinking but on geological, engineering and commercial realities. Deeply embedded in those plans is our long-standing commitment to the principles of ESG, which informs all our business decisions.

 
Building on our value foundation

In Nevada, the updated Goldrush feasibility study delivered a robust project that meets our investment criteria and the immediate geological prospectivity has the potential to enhance it with further evaluation. The commissioning of Turquoise Ridge’s third shaft and continued geological and mine improvements will secure that mine’s future as a Tier One asset. The state is one of the world’s most prolific gold districts and last year alone brownfields exploration added 9.4 million ounces of reserves Please see page 138 of the annual report for corresponding endnotes.. Mineral resources, inclusive of reserves, also demonstrated good growth with 7.4 million ounces of measured and indicated resourcesi and a further 5.2 million ounces of inferred resourcesi to Nevada Gold Mines’ inventory, before depletion. There is also a real potential for the discovery of new world-class deposits.

Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic – another of our Tier One assets – is making good progress with its plant expansion and mine life extension project, designed to deliver a mine capable of producing 800,000 ounces On a 100% basis. of gold per year well into the 2040s. Work on the plant is well advanced and the new tailings facility is at the permitting stage.

In Africa, the Tier One Loulo-Gounkoto is ramping up production at its third underground mine while exploration successes continues to extend the life of the complex. Kibali, also a member of the Tier One club, is discovering new orebodies within the main mining area. North Mara and Bulyanhulu, both stagnant when we took over their management in 2019, have been transformed beyond recognition, and last year’s combined production of over 500,000 ounces of gold meets one of our key criteria for a Tier One complex. 

Veladero in Argentina is another success story. A doubtful starter at the time of the Merger, it has been turned into a strong performer, and the commissioning of its link to the power grid in neighbouring Chile will reduce its costs as well as its carbon emissions.

In Papua New Guinea, the Porgera mine has been on care and maintenance since the government chose not to renew its special mining licence. Negotiations led by the prime minister and me eventually delivered a framework agreement for the resumption of operations but finalizing the fine print is also requiring perseverance. We nevertheless hope that it will be possible to restart the mine this July.

Barrick has an industry-leading record of reserve and resource replacement, and last year we again found more ounces than we mined, and at a better grade. Our portfolio of advanced targets will continue to add to our inventory, providing solid support for our 10-year production forecast.

 
New frontiers

We are increasing our global footprint as the hunt for high-quality assets extends into new prospective areas. A specialist Asia-Pacific team, set up to look at opportunities in that region, has acquired exploration permits in Japan and we are also investigating projects across the Nubian and Arabian Shields in North Africa and the Middle East. In Egypt, a draft mineral exploitation permit has been received from the Egyptian government and negotiations have started on its fiscal parameters. 

We have put a particularly strong focus on exploration in Latin America, where our teams are testing a portfolio of targets on the El Indio belt along the border between Argentina and Chile. We have also added ground in Peru and started fieldwork on new projects in Guyana and Suriname.

We are working on a well-defined strategy to grow our business in Canada where I believe we are under-invested. A significant exploration portfolio has been secured in the country’s Uchi Belt and the team is also looking at other opportunities in the country.

We are investigating the revival of the Reko Diq project in Pakistan, which sits on top of the world’s largest undeveloped copper and gold deposit. This project stalled when the provincial government refused to grant it a mining licence. An arbitration court subsequently awarded our partners and us significant damages. Instead of enforcing this, however, we have been working with the federal and provincial governments in a spirit of partnership on an agreement that will support the legalization of the lease and development of the project.

 
The S in ESG

The Social component of ESG tends to be overshadowed by its Environmental counterpart, but for Barrick it is the socioeconomic state of our less-developed host countries that is critically important, and much of our sustainability strategy is directed at ensuring that our host communities are not impacted negatively by the world’s transition to a green economy. 

Our sustainability team has been collecting and analyzing the socio-economic data from surveys undertaken to quantify the benefits of our support for communities’ livelihood improvement initiatives. These findings will be included in our Sustainability Report for 2021 and these non-monetary metrics will be an industry first.

Throughout the year we tracked our progress against the Sustainability Scorecard at least quarterly. The main motivation for the scorecard – another industry first, introduced in 2019 – is to disclose our performance to external stakeholders transparently while driving internal improvement at a site level.

For the 14th successive year, Barrick was included in the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability Index’s World Index, placing in the 95th percentile of all the mining companies listed. We scored full marks for environmental reporting, waterrelated risks, social reporting, human rights and economic contribution.

Last year we also quantified and published a greenhouse gas reduction roadmap to our target of a 30% reduction by 2030 against a 2018 baseline, while maintaining a steady production profile. This was lauded by investors and stakeholders as a promise with a plan: in other words, a realistically achievable goal and not merely a hopeful pledge to please the market. In the meantime, some of our reduction initiatives, such as Nevada’s 200MW solar power plant, have made significant progress.

 
Investing in our human capital

One of our key ESG contributions is Barrick’s policy of local employment: 96% of our workforce and 78% of our management are host country nationals. 

This natural diversity gives Barrick an unparalleled ability to understand and align with the social and cultural norms of its operational environments and effectively manage any challenges that might arise.

Our drive to employ the next generation of mining talent remains steady, with 56% of our workforce now under the age of 40 and 19% under 30. We are continuing to increase our gender diversity, and last year 17% of new hires globally were women. Christine Keener, formerly vice-president of operations for Europe and North America at Alcoa, has been appointed as our new chief operating officer for North America and Poupak Bahamin will replace Rich Haddock in the role of General Counsel in April 2022. Running parallel to our recruiting drive are individual development plans tailored specifically for women.

Effective succession planning is a key human capital objective and high-potential leaders identified through this process are enrolled in executive and management development courses.

As part of our employee development programs, we have developed a new Subject Matter Expert (SME) approach to stretch our key technical talent. These SMEs are equipped to deal with operational challenges in real time and form part of our global best practice teams.

Barrick believes in empowering our people to thrive in a decentralized structure with lean regional teams designed for agility. We have two-way communication and engagement with employees and our mantra is management by walking about. Core executives are physically in the regions for most of each quarter, driving key initiatives and assessing organizational capability. I personally spend most of my time working at our mines and projects around the world. 

 
Rolling out a single groupwide data platform

After the Merger and the Newmont joint venture in Nevada, Barrick was left with more than 20 separate financial planning, transacting and reporting systems. Drastically simplifying these and integrating them into a single, integrated platform for all financial data and operational KPIs was consequently one of our key priorities.

Towards the end of 2021, Barrick passed another major milestone in its digital transformation journey, when all its sites in the Americas and Africa moved on to a single SAP solution, one of three layered applications that will constitute the group’s data platform. In addition to SAP (transactions), the others are OneStream (financial reporting and consolidation) and Xeras (operating cost modelling).

This integrated knowledge platform will give Barrick the ability to convert updated mine plans into financial models and roll them up into a consolidated group view, all in a matter of minutes. It can also quickly compare the financial viability of multiple mining scenarios and measure key cost drivers in real time, flagging issues that require immediate attention.

The new platform has significantly improved not only the availability but also the accuracy of our information, providing a robust foundation for our continuing investment in new projects. 

 
Now for the next step

Barrick’s strong balance sheet and the abundant free cash flow generated by our operations will enable us to continue building our future by investing in the development of the many growth prospects within the group as well as the acquisition of the rare external opportunities that may meet our criteria.

Last year we again demonstrated the effectiveness of our strategy of combining the best assets with the best people to deliver the best results. Barrick demonstrably has the best assets and it is producing industry-leading returns, thanks to the teams who worked tirelessly to achieve 2021’s stellar results. Led by the group executive, they are focused on taking us to the next level.

The executive chairman and the Board provided the guidance and governance we need on this journey, and I thank them for their support. I also thank the many stakeholders and business associates with whom we enjoy mutually rewarding partnerships.

Mark Bristow
President and Chief Executive