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Sustainability

Annual Report 2023

Mining Sustainably for a Better Future

Clear, robust and accountable governance of sustainability

The prime mission of our business is to create long-term value for all our stakeholders, and that puts our approach to sustainability at the heart of our business.

We know, and feel every day, that to achieve our mission our operations must have the trust and support of their host countries and communities, and must protect the natural capital they rely on.

It’s why we manage our sustainability impacts with the same diligence we might apply to understanding our ore bodies or our accounts. And we consider our contributions to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the 17 global goals which most closely align with our values and the ambitions of our host communities – as an important measure of our success as a company.

Our holistic and integrated approach to sustainability management is based on three interlinked areas that align with the SDGs.

As part of this approach, we understand and regularly assess both the risks that material sustainability issues pose to our business, and the potential and perceived impacts from our business on society and the environment.

Our transparent governance aims to ensure we carefully measure and manage those risks and impacts. This approach is codified in our Sustainable Development Policy and a full suite of sustainability policies, which are available on our website.

Our approach to sustainability management

On-the-ground leadership

In keeping with a focus on local impacts and delivery, we have a bottom-up structure that sees sustainability activity driven at mine level, with each mine having its own teams to implement sustainability initiatives. We fuse this bottom-up approach with oversight and expert guidance at group-level.

Our Board has ultimate responsibility for our sustainability activities with support from several committees including the Environmental & Social Oversight Committee – one of our most senior management-level bodies – which connects site- level ownership of sustainability with our Board. There is also regular interaction between all our operations and the Group Sustainability Executive and specialist regional leads.

We also tie incentive compensation for our President, CEO, members of the Executive Committee and employees to the achievement of company-wide sustainability targets such as safety, community relations and environmental performance, human rights and anti-corruption. Performance against our sustainability scorecard (see below) accounts for 20% of the long-term incentive awards for senior leaders as part of the Barrick partnership plan.

We believe in transparently measuring and reporting our performance and the main tool we use to define good practice and benchmark ourselves against peers is our Sustainability Scorecard – published below.

This tracks key performance indicators based on the pillars of our sustainability strategy and scores our performance as a ranking for each metric in quintiles, to produce a score of 1 (top) – 5 (bottom). The score for each indicator is then summed to produce a total score against which we have graded ourselves using an A-E banding. For 2023 the fatalities metric was given a double-weighting, further added to by the Board, to underline the seriousness with which we hold our goal of zero fatalities. The results show that Barrick received an A grade in 2023. This is an improvement on our B grade in 2022.

Sustainability Scorecard

For 2023, the grading key was updated to reflect a total of 28 measures assessed by the Sustainability Scorecard resulting in a maximum of 140 quintiles, compared to a total of 26 measures in 2022 resulting in a maximum of 130 quintiles. The total scores and corresponding grades are therefore not directly comparable year-over-year.

Sustainability scorecard

Our management and disclosure of sustainability activity is informed by the ever-growing number of ESG frameworks and standards. Our full Sustainability Report conforms with the member requirements of the World Gold Council (WGC) and International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), including the implementation of the WGC Responsible Gold Mining Principles (RGMPs) and the ICMM Mining Principles Performance Expectations. It is prepared with reference to the requirements of the GRI Universal Standards and its recently released Mining and Metals Standards and aims to align with the requirements of the International Sustainability Standards Board.

Creating social and economic value

All our mines rely on making and maintaining mutually beneficial partnerships with our host countries and communities. Together with our communities we establish operations that nurture local talent and catalyze thriving local economies.

Our commitment to create social value in this way, including upskilling the national sector and supporting initiatives in education, healthcare and local entrepreneurship, is formalized in our Sustainable Development and Social Performance Policies.

The bedrock of our approach is to put host communities at the center of the local decision-making process through the creation of Community Development Committees (CDCs). We have established CDCs at all our operations, enabling local stakeholders to drive their own development in line with the UN SDGs (Figure 2). Each CDC is an elected group made up of local leaders as well as representatives from women’s, youth, disadvantaged groups in the community and a Barrick official.

In 2023 Barrick distributed around $15.1 billion in total economic value and invested more than $43.2 million in community development projects around our mines.

This included support for educational projects such as Early Learning Centers in the US and university scholarships in Dominican Republic; support to local entrepreneurs in Africa and Saudi Arabia, provision of sports to science equipment and backing for projects from health care to heritage conservation.

We also encourage all economic development to consider the environmental impacts. For example, the Lumwana team in Zambia support community beekeeping businesses not only by funding the construction of a new honey production facility, but also by backing initiatives to protect local forests from pesticides and deforestation, as the health of local forests is key to creating productive bee hives.

Community development committee process

Community development committee process

Our contribution to society in 2023

Our contribution to society in 2023

 
Local hiring and buying

We see the large pool of workers and goods and services that our mines require as an opportunity to share and create value by implementing hiring and buying policies that help inject money and world-class skills into local communities and host countries. By the end of 2023, 77% of senior management were host country nationals, and we spent nearly $7 billion on goods and services from local and host country suppliers.

We also support local entrepreneurs with mentorship programs, skills training, or by providing loans to cover the cost of start-up materials.

Being a long-term partner also means paying our fair share of tax and in 2023, our total tax and royalty contributions and dividends to states was $2.8 billion.

We recognize that our responsibility does not stop when operations cease. We aim to leave a thriving economic and environmental legacy after our mines close and in 2023 the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) around the former Buzwagi mine in Tanzania showed what can be achieved. The former mine now houses agricultural resource centers, a range of apiary and poultry projects, welcomed new investors with plans to produce conveyor belt rollers and grinding media and, perhaps most significantly last year, saw the conclusion of an eight-month partnership to open a new airport terminal. Located on the former mine’s Kahama Airstrip the new terminal will serve more than 200 passengers at a time and connect the SEZ to wider trade partners.

A helping hand, to stand on her own two feet

In 2012, Violet Kahaji was illiterate and relied on subsistence farming to support herself and her five children.

However, the Women’s Empowerment Program developed by Lumwana copper mine (Zambia) offered a helping hand to change her situation – and Violet grasped it. After a few years in the program, Violet learned to read and write, and by 2015, with the opportunities that literacy opened up she decided to start a business: Kuwunda Supplies.

The start-up was supported by the Lumwana Business Accelerator Program, and the training Violet received helped build her skills and hit the ground running. Kuwunda Supplies won several contracts including selling maize, beans, and roots for brewing the local fermented drink munkoyo.

In a little over a decade, Violet has grown her business to reach approximately 40 workers in the start of 2024.

Since starting her business, Violet has been able to invest funds back into herself and her family. She’s bought a home, has seen a first child graduate from college, and is supporting two of her other kids with college tuition. When asked about how her life has changed, Violet said she was very grateful to Barrick, saying: “For me, what I wanted was just to stand on my own as a woman, not to depend on any other person.”

Health and safety

Ensuring our people go home from work safe and healthy each day is one of our foundational values, and a top priority at every site through every phase of the mine life cycle.

All our operational sites are certified to the internationally-recognized ISO 45001 standard and our safety-first mindset is codified in a set of standards, policy guidelines, operating procedures and controls, including site-specific safety management plans at each mine, that we aim to continually improve.

Yet it is people, not documentation, at the heart of our safety culture. We conducted continuous safety training in 2023 and our workers and contractors discuss safety every day and know to take responsibility for the safety of themselves, their colleagues and their wider communities. This includes giving all our people the responsibility to stop or refuse unsafe work.

Safety is a standing agenda item at our weekly Executive Committee meetings, and quarterly board meetings and to drive safety culture and behaviors, our leadership teams spend time in the field every day engaging with people on safely executing their work, correcting unsafe practices and behavior, working to identify nearby risks and hazard, and striving for operational excellence.

In 2023, however, the progress on our ‘Journey to Zero’ has been too slow. Despite steady improvements in LTIFRi from
0.50 in 2019 to 0.23 in 2023, and TRIFRi (reducing from 2.24 to 1.14 over the same period) we recorded five fatalities across the group in 2023, which were felt across all levels of the company. Full investigations were carried out for each incident to understand all causes and corrective actions were both implemented and shared across the group to prevent recurrence. We also recognize that each fatality has a human impact and provide relevant support to each victim’s families, co-workers and extended teams.

Our commitment to a safety culture does not end at the mine gates. We also work with communities and suppliers, for example on improving road safety through speed awareness campaigns or encouraging suppliers to spread strong safety practices. Just one example is community supplier Construc Zambrana in Dominican Republic, who received safety training provided by Barrick, and now provide their own training services to a local energy company.

All of our workforce is covered by occupational health and safety programs which include regular medical checks, job specific risk assessments, PPE and the control and monitoring of occupational health hazards and exposure as set out in our Occupational Health & Safety Policy. We also focus on personal wellbeing and all our sites have fit-for-work programs that consider the importance of mental health, adequate sleep, diet and exercise.

Military-grade safety training

Having formally worked in the military Tommy Brockman at our NGM complex knows the vital importance of effective preparation and protocols.

He recently completed our underground training process which includes study of underground maps and navigation in a classroom setting, use of driving haul- truck simulators and riding with trained operators. It takes in a full review of all aspects of our safety policy including responsibility to speak up and stop unsafe work.

In his first day at work following graduation, his safety training came into play.

While assisting a haul truck driver in backwards navigation, Tommy spotted a bolt sticking out of the ground – creating a safety hazard for the truck and surrounding workers. While initially hesitant to speak up, he remembered a key lesson from his mine safety training program: it’s everyone’s responsibility to stop unsafe work. He notified the driver and stopped to remove the bolt before continuing work. The near miss saved Tommy and his colleagues from both potential injury and costly delays.

Tommy says he couldn’t imagine being thrown into these situations without this level of training. The course and the instructors made him feel like family, and ensured no student was put into a situation before they were ready.

Respecting human rights

At Barrick we have zero tolerance for violations of human rights committed by employees, affiliates, or any third parties acting on behalf or related to any of our operations.

We understand and accept our responsibility to respect human rights with our commitment codified in our standalone Human Rights Policy and informed by the expectations of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs), and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. This is further embedded across the business through our Code of Conduct, which all staff are trained in and our Ethics, Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy. Our Human Rights Policy also sets out our commitment to recognizing the unique rights and social, economic and cultural heritage of Indigenous Peoples.

All employees and relevant suppliers receive training on our human rights expectations and additional specialist human rights training is provided to highly-exposed workers such as security personnel.

We engage in constant dialogue with local communities to identify any salient human rights issues through formal channels such as our grievance mechanisms, hotline reports and internal monitoring and evaluation processes. We also work with global multi-stakeholder initiatives to broaden our understanding of where risks for negative human rights impacts are most significant for mining companies.

Our human rights program has us conduct an independent human rights assessment at all our mines on, at most, a three-year cycle, with those mines most exposed to human rights risks on a two-year cycle. In 2023 we undertook independent human rights assessments at Loulo-Gounkoto (Mali), North Mara (Tanzania), Bulyanhulu (Tanzania) and Jabal Sayid (Saudi Arabia).

During 2023 we also continued with resettlements of the Kalimva-Ikanva area near our Kibali mine in DRC and began the land acquisition process at Komarera in Tanzania. Our approach to resettlement is guided by our Social Performance Policy and conducted in compliance with applicable laws, regulations and international best practices such as that set out by the IFC’s Performance Standard 5.

Supporting diversity and inclusion

As part of our fundamental belief in human rights we are also an equal opportunity employer with an aim to build diverse and locally-representative workforces. This diversity is a critical part of our mission to transform natural resources into sustainable benefits and mutual prosperity for our employees, local communities and host country governments.

In 2023 97% of our workforce were host country nationals and 23% of management positions were filled by women as of the end of 2023.

At Board level independent directors make up 82% of our Board and 36% of our Board is comprised of directors who self-identify as racially and/or ethnically diverse.

In line with the target we set for women to represent at least 30% of directors by the end of 2022, women make up 36% of our Board and 44% of independent directors.

Respecting indigenous rights

Where indigenous populations live close to our mine we believe that consideration of their values, needs and concerns is fundamental to the way we do business. Our commitment is detailed in our Human Rights Policy and informed by the ICMM position statement to work to obtain free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples.

Just one example of this policy in action is our strong relationship with the Western Shoshone, Northern Paiute, and Goshute peoples around our Nevada Gold Mines complex. This has seen Barrick invest over $700,000 in scholarships to support students from native tribes and in 2023 saw us provide a $400,000 donation to a Summer Youth Employment Program helping Native American youth find the right careers and employment for them.

More details on our policies, approach and performance in this area is available in our Sustainability Report.

Environmental stewardship

We recognize that mining for gold and copper has consequences for the natural environment and as a responsible mining company we act to minimize and mitigate the negative impacts, and amplify the positive ones. Here we report on our most material environmental focus areas: climate resilience, water stewardship, biodiversity conservation and waste management.

Our careful stewardship of the natural environment is governed by our Environmental Policy, responsibility for which lies with the Group Sustainability Executive with oversight by our Board. In 2023 all our operational mines were certified against the globally-respected ISO 14001:2015 standard for their environmental management system, and for the fifth consecutive year since the Merger that we recorded zero major environmental incidents.

Climate resilience

We are committed to managing our climate risks and leveraging the opportunities of the low carbon transition, including investing in clean energy to power the needs of our mines and host communities. The increasing use of renewable energy is a key driver of growth for our business, with copper a critical input in renewable energy sources such as solar PVs and wind turbines and gold used in solar and fuel cells to improve efficiency.

We have a multi-faced approach to addressing, avoiding, managing and adapting to climate change. This includes detailed emissions disclosure by each site against short, medium and long term reduction targets and a detailed and continually updated emissions reduction roadmap. Since 2021 this has included disclosure in the complex area of ‘scope 3’ ie the indirect emissions caused by suppliers and other entities not owned or controlled by our company, but an area of our business where we believe we can have influence driving global action.

In 2023 we generated direct emissions (scope 1 and 2) of 6,357kt of CO2-e1, which represents a 5% reduction compared to 2022, and a 15% reduction against our 2018 baseline. We continue to progress our emission reduction capex and operational efficiency projects as part of our target to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030 against this baseline while maintaining a steady production profile. In 2023 we also published a detailed target for reduction of our scope 3 emissions which is available on our website.

We continue to develop alternative sources of electricity, as set out in our roadmap to Net Zero including expansion of the Loulo-Gounkoto solar farm in Mali from 20MW to 60MW, breaking ground on the new solar plant in Nevada and introducing electric vehicles into the light vehicle fleet in the same complex. We are also seeing the benefits of our major project to connect our Veladero mine to the Chilean national grid, which has a higher proportion of clean energy than the national grid of Argentina where Veladero is located.

As part of managing our long-term climate risks we completed a TCFD (Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures) aligned scenario analysis for Nevada Gold Mines, as the US is our biggest source of emissions by country. We also conducted climate change risk and vulnerability assessments as part of our ESIA processes for proposed expansions at our Tongon, Loulo, Kibali and Lumwana mines.

Full details of our governance and risk management approach, as set out using the requirements of Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure is available online.

1 Market-based

Water stewardship

Responsible water management is critical to our business and we seek to protect and where possible enhance access to clean water for other stakeholders, particularly local communities.

Each mine has its own site-specific water management plan with a strategy based on four pillars:

  • To conserve and protect high quality water resources wherever we operate. In 2023 we reused or recycled 84% of all water used to help achieve this.
  • To consider other users through using basin-wide water balances. These studies consider impacts from climate change as well as the current and future demands of other users and the key biodiversity features that rely on shared water sources.
  • To track and ensure we don’t exceed our permitted thresholds for abstraction or discharge quality, which we do through site-wide balances, monitoring and management plans. For example at our Jabal Sayid mine in Saudi Arabia, which is considered a water scarce area, the operations use water sent from a wastewater facility, so as not to impact local catchment water stress. In areas of water abundance such as Kibali (DRC) and Pueblo Vieojo (Dominican Republic) management plans focus on how to avoid stress from heavy rainfall and flooding.
  • To provide honest and open disclosure, including reporting against the market-leading ICMM Water Reporting Framework. We also conduct participatory monitoring programs for community members across many sites, especially where water is a key community concern.

As with all elements of sustainability our approach is holistic and access to water is one of the key investment themes for Community Development Committees. In 2023 this saw, for example, local communities deliver a new water tower in North Mara giving 30,000 Tanzanians better access to water and the establishment of several community drinking fountains near Kibali in the DRC.

Our commitment to responsible water use is set out in our Environmental policy and further details of our water management can be found in our Sustainability Report.

Nurturing nature

We aim to play a positive role in the management of the biodiversity both inside and outside the mine gates, and strive to use biodiversity as a tool to help drive community development. Our commitments are enshrined in our Environmental Policy, and as a standalone Biodiversity Policy.

Our approach is to have no net loss on any Key Biodiversity Features (KBFs) identified at our sites, and to contribute positively to the conservation of high value biodiversity in the regions in which we operate.

Examples of these contributions can be found in each mine’s Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP). These include the protection of sage-grouse habitat in Nevada, our extensive support to the Garamba National Park (DRC) and Aniana Vargas National Park in Dominican Republic. Many of these projects also support local jobs based on conservation and eco-tourism.

Our work to protect biodiversity is also about long-term value creation. For example the most cost-effective solution for active and sustained water treatment is the creation of wetlands. At Loulo we developed the largest constructed wetland in West Africa, which removes and reduces nitrates and sediment from the mine’s underground pumped water down to acceptable levels prior to discharge.

The wetland provides a habitat for a range of local fauna and flora and acts as a carbon sink by converting carbon dioxide into plant material potentially storing close to 80 tonnes CO2-e.

Many stakeholders, particularly in the investment community, are now aware of the risks posed by poor biodiversity management but we have found few tools on the market that help us measure the complexity and nuance of biodiversity and impacts to the extent that is necessary to make informed decision. That’s why throughout 2023 we have been working with third party experts to develop and pilot a new biodiversity measurement tool. We hope that in time this will be a useful contribution to help the sector effectively measure biodiversity impacts, identify projects to support, set metrics for good management and drive good practice.

Responsible waste and tailings management

Dealing responsibly with the waste our operations produce – including tailings, waste rock, and non-processing waste – is vital to the health of people, the environment and our business
as a whole.

At Barrick, we endeavor to reduce the waste and pollution that stems from our operations, reuse or recycle those products that can be, and to deal with remaining waste in a responsible manner that protects the natural environment. All our operations have waste sorting areas for the separation of metals, wood and equipment, and for waste oil collection.

We are always looking for innovative ways to reuse or recycle, including working with local companies or artisans to collect, recycle or dispose of our waste safely and hope to replicate the good work being done on circular initiatives at our Veladero mine in 2023 (see box).

We follow a rigorous risk-based approach to the management of hazardous waste. We are aligned with the ICMM position statement on Mercury Risk Management, are a signatory to the International Cyanide Management Code (ICMC) and member of the International Cyanide Management Institute (ICMI).

Safety-first approach

The most significant of our waste streams is tailings, ie the crushed rock, unrecoverable materials and chemicals left from the processing of mined ore, and as set out in our group- wide Tailings Management Standard, safety is at the center of our approach. However, our safety focus is not only on tailings. For example, our group Heap Leach Management Standard is designed to ensure we locate, design, construct, operate and close our heap leach facilities in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations and in alignment with accepted international practice.

Our standard sets out the key roles required for the management of all active and closed tailings facilities (TSFs) and our six levels of inspection and surety for the safe management and operation of TSFs and heap leach pads. All our TSFs meet regulatory requirements and continually work towards best practice.

In line with the requirements of the recently created Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) all our priority facilities (those with extreme or very high consequence classifications) conform to GISTM requirements. We are now working to ensure our other facilities also conform by the August 2025 deadline.

In 2023, in line with our standard and GISTM requirements, of the 59 tailings storage facilities that Barrick owns or operates, only 14 are classified as ‘Extreme’ (five facilities) or ‘Very High’ (nine facilities) under the GISTM. All 14 of these facilities conform with the requirements of the GISTM. Two facilities (Giant Nickel’s Upper and Lower TSFs) are classified as being in ‘Safe Closure’ and are therefore not subject to the disclosure requirements of the GISTM, while one facility (Zaldivar TSF) is operated by a joint venture partner and is therefore not included in Barrick’s GISTM disclosures.

Full details of our approach to waste management and an inventory of our tailings facilities are available in the Sustainability Report and on our website.