TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/06/16 -- All amounts expressed in US dollars
Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE: ABX)(TSX: ABX) (Barrick or the "company") has published its 2015 Responsibility Report, which provides a detailed and candid look at the company's environmental and social performance. The full report is available on Barrick's website at http://www.barrick.com/responsibility/
"In many respects 2015 was a transformational year at Barrick," says Peter Sinclair, Chief Sustainability Officer. "However, what has remained unchanged is our belief that mining can provide real opportunities to generate value, everywhere we operate. In our view, this is best achieved through partnerships-with host countries and communities, our employees, and others-so we can all advance together."
Advancing With Countries and Communities
The metal that Barrick extracts belongs to the nations where we operate and their people. This means we succeed only if we are partners in developing these resources for the mutual benefit of all stakeholders.
- In 2015, the company invested more than $6.4 billion in the national economies of the nine countries where we operate. This included nearly $1.2 billion in goods and services from local suppliers, more than $790 million in taxes and royalties, approximately $37 million in direct contributions in local communities, and nearly a thousand scholarships to local students.
- Local employment is one of the more tangible and significant ways Barrick contributes to social and economic development. In 2015, more than 96 percent of Barrick employees were nationals of the countries where we operate, and 64 percent came from the local areas near our mines.
Learn more: http://www.barrick.com/responsibility/society/
Advancing Our Environmental Management
We know that our role in society cannot be just about maximizing financial benefits. Barrick must also manage the impacts that our operations can have on the environment, including on land, air, and water resources.
- Barrick continues to manage water as a vital, shared resource everywhere we operate. This includes water recycling, zero discharge programs, community water monitoring, and the use of non-potable water sources where available. In 2015, 62 percent of the water Barrick used was recycled, and half our sites did not discharge water to the environment. As part of an on-going effort to improve site water management and minimize water-related risks, Barrick updated its Water Conservation Standard in 2015.
- We also understand the important link between our energy use and climate change, and have made progress in our five-year Energy Management Program. In 2015, the company decreased energy use, and reduced energy costs by 30 percent from its 2014 baseline. We also increased our use of renewable energy: 18 percent of our electrical power was sourced from renewables in 2015, up from 15 percent in 2014.
- Barrick did not live up to our stakeholders' expectations when a solution spill occurred at our Veladero mine in September 2015. Although independent monitoring continues to confirm that the incident did not pose any risks to the health of communities or the environment downstream from the mine, as a company we disappointed many of our stakeholders, especially our government and community partners in San Juan Province, Argentina.
Learn more: http://www.barrick.com/responsibility/environment/
Advancing With Our People
Barrick's employees-more than 14,000 of them-are at the heart of our ability to transform gold resources into shared prosperity. We know our people want to be a part of change, a part of something bigger. Our goal is to provide them with that opportunity, always putting their safety first.
- A perfect example of this is what our people have done at the Goldstrike mine in Nevada: being the first company in the Western World to successfully produce gold using calcium thiosulfate leaching, rather than cyanide. Two decades in the making, this innovation brought together the best and brightest of our environmental, energy, processing, and engineering talents. The result is a convergence of business and environmental interests.
- Last year, a culture of teamwork and courageous safety leadership, "Courage to Care", contributed to a ten-year trend of improving our total reportable injury frequency rate (TRIFR). Since 2005, there has been an 84 percent improvement in the TRIFR, from 2.79 to 0.46. This performance was tragically overshadowed by three fatalities in 2015. We pledge to redouble our efforts to live up to our safety vision of every person going home safe and healthy every day.
Learn more: http://www.barrick.com/responsibility/our-people/
Advancing Through Collaboration
In today's complex operating and social environment, it is more critical than ever for us to work together with coalitions of diverse individuals and sectors.
We play an active role in important multi-stakeholder groups, including the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Devonshire Initiative, and the UN Global Compact, among others.
While work remains, Barrick's efforts in mining responsibly are being acknowledged externally. In 2015, Barrick was listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for the eighth consecutive year, receiving Gold Class for our sector; and the CDP named Barrick to the Canada Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index. Barrick was also included in the Euronext Vigeo World 120 Index for the first time in early 2016. This index distinguishes the 120 most advanced companies from Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific region for their environmental, social, and governance performance.
Barrick's complete 2015 Responsibility Report is available at http://www.barrick.com/responsibility/.
Contacts:
INVESTOR CONTACT: Angela Parr
Vice President, Investor Relations
+1 416 307-7426
aparr@barrick.com
MEDIA CONTACT: Andy Lloyd
Senior Vice President, Communications
+1 416 307-7414
alloyd@barrick.com
