Home  >  Sustainability  >  Communities & People  >  Community Engagement

Community Engagement

Community Engagement:
Building Trust, Strengthening Communities

Engagement alone does not build trust. Real relationships do. We view community relationships and partnerships as the foundation of how we operate. We know that true relationships have to go beyond meetings and consultations or a simple engagement. They need open, two-way dialogue, trust, transparency and, above all, honesty, even when the conversations are difficult.

We also know that relationships don't happen overnight. They take time and are built through on-going, meaningful collaboration and a commitment to long-term partnership, not just to meet transactional one-off needs. Because of this, our approach prioritizes local presence, host country leadership and culturally appropriate ways of working. Our community teams – the people leading our community efforts – are not outsiders to the communities they work in. They are part of, and have strong connections with, the communities themselves. We do this to ensure that engagement is not just heard but understood and that conversations are not just held but valued, finding solutions that are built together.
 

How We Build Relationships, Not Just Engagement

While every site has its own unique operating context, our philosophy is clear. We must engage openly, honestly and with the community at the centre of every decision. Some of the ways we foster relationships include:

  • Local teams leading the way – Our dedicated community specialists at each site are local or national professionals who understand the culture, language and history of the region.
  • Community site visits that bring transparency to mining – We open our doors, hosting community members at the mine itself so they can see our operations firsthand, as we do at Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic.
  • Participatory water monitoring, ensuring shared oversight – In Argentina, Tanzania and the Dominican Republic, local communities take part in monitoring water quality together with us, building confidence through transparency.
  • A grievance system that listens, not just records – Every operation has a community grievance mechanism, ensuring concerns are formally recorded, fairly addressed and aimed to be resolved within 30 days.

Our commitment to local hiring and procurement is another key way we strengthen relationships. When local people work for us, lead our community programs and drive economic development, trust deepens naturally. Details on our approach to community relations are outlined in our Social Performance Policy, available on our website.
 

Listening, Responding and Strengthening Community Trust

A strong grievance mechanism is more than just a facility for registering complaints. It is a critical part of our stakeholder engagement arsenal, driving accountability and building trust. At every operation and project, we have active, accessible grievance mechanisms that allow community members to formally raise concerns. These systems are designed to meet the IFC Performance Standards and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPS), ensuring they are effective, transparent, accessible and responsive.

We do not measure the success of our grievance mechanisms by the number of complaints received. A low number of grievances may indicate a lack of trust or awareness, while a higher volume can reflect open communication and strong community engagement. Our focus is on ensuring that communities understand, trust and use the system when needed.

We actively raise awareness about grievance mechanisms, working with trusted partners and external organizations to build confidence and awareness, and improve accessibility. Since restarting operations at Porgera, a key focus has been rebuilding community trust, which includes the resolution of legacy grievances.

By listening, responding and working to resolve grievances receive, we help ensure that our engagement with communities is not just about managing concerns but focused on fostering long-term, respectful relationships.
 

Grievance Management: Resolving Issues, Building Trust

In 2024, Barrick received and recorded more than 750 community grievances across its operations. These covered a wide range of issues, from land use and compensation to contractor behaviour and environmental concerns.

Our focus is not just on closing grievances. It is on resolving them quickly, transparently, and fairly. Strong grievance mechanisms are core to maintaining trust and improving performance on the ground:

  • Nearly 60% of grievances in 2024 were resolved within 30 days.
  • Several sites – including Loulo-Gounkoto, Hemlo, Pascua and Veladero – achieved 100% resolution within 30 days.
  • Areas for improvement remain, including North Mara and Porgera, where resolution rates were below 35%.

By tracking grievances by category, site and closure timeline, we are able to identify recurring pain points and continuously improve how we engage with communities.

In addition to the grievances received in 2024, Porgera carried 265 legacy grievances from before the site entered care and maintenance in 2020. We are actively addressing these cases and have already reduced the number to 222. Our goal is to resolve all remaining legacy grievances by the end of 2025.

Management approach: Community development & engagement

Governance and accountability

Our President and CEO is ultimately responsible for Social aspects with our Group Sustainability Executive taking the lead in driving the implementation of our Sustainable Development and Social Performance Policies, the associated procedures and overall performance.

The Group Sustainability Executive is supported by regional-level environmental leads as well as dedicated site-level environmental teams who drive implementation at the operational level, including community development and engagement aspects.  The Sustainability Executive is supported by our Group Sustainability Manager, and functional regional leads.

At an operational level, each mine has a manager with responsibility for community engagement and relations, including liaison with the Community Development Committee. They report to the General Manager of their mine and feed into regional leads who report to our Group Sustainability Executive. 
 

Policies and procedures

Our approach to community development and engagement is set out in our  Sustainable Development Policy and our Social Performance Policy

These set out our approach which is guided by three central tenets: Partnership, sharing benefits and engagement.

The epitome of this approach is the CDC model, which reflects our belief that no one knows the needs of local communities better than the communities themselves.

We have CDCs at all our operating mines.  The CDC’s role is to allocate a community investment budget to those projects and initiatives most needed and desired by local stakeholders.   Our community investment budgets are decided annually on a site by site basis with projects funnelled into one of five sustainable development goals.  We find this models works best when our communities also contribute to project funding even if it is just a small amount, as it promotes and reinforces ownership, and engagement.

Each CDC is elected and made up of a mix of local leaders and community members, as well as representatives from local women, youth groups and representatives for disadvantaged groups. Each CDC receives requests for projects from the community, and meets to decide which ones will be supported and how these projects will scale, align with and contribute to regional development plans. The CDC will also manage and oversee the execution of the project Barrick is also a member of each community’s CDC; however, we only have one seat at the table performing a largely governance oversight function to ensure adherence to policy and decisions are made on a majority and consensus basis.  To further amplify the impact of projects where possible community businesses and suppliers are also involved in the implementation of projects.  This approach is applied across all our jurisdictions regardless of development status.

We also deliver jobs and economic opportunities to local communities through local hiring and buying policies and paying our fair share of tax.

Resolving grievances

AS part of our commitment to community engagement, all our operations have local grievance mechanisms in place, informed by the requirements of the UN Global Compact and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

We carefully track the number and type of grievances, and work to resolve them in a timely manner. We have a target to resolve all grievances through our mechanism within 30 days of receipt.

Where resettlement needs to occur, a resettlement-specific grievance mechanism is created with dedicated team members responsible for the resolution of any grievances received.
 

Key targets and metrics

  • Percentage of annual CDC commitments met
  • Percentage of workforce who are host nationals
  • Percentage of senior management who are host nationals
  • Percentage of economic value that stays in country
  • Percentage of grievances resolved within 30 days
back to top