Barrick Mining Corporation (ABX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Barrick 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. As a reminder, this meeting is being recorded. I would now like to turn the meeting over to John Thornton, Executive Chairman. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, my fellow shareholders. It is my pleasure to welcome you to Barrick's 2023 Annual General Meeting, those who have joined us in person here in Toronto as well as those who have chosen to participate by way of our live webcast. We look forward to answering your questions and hearing your views. Before we start, I would like to introduce the other directors who are here with me today or participating online. They are Mark Bristow, Helen Cai, Gustavo Cisneros, Christopher Coleman, Isela Costantini, Michael Evans, Brian Greenspun, Brett Harvey, Anne Kabagambe, Andrew Quinn, Loreto Silva. Our most recent appointment was out of Isela Costantini, who brings to the Board 25 years of experience in international business with a particular emphasis on Latin America. It's worth noting that her appointment increases the proportion of women on our board to 33% ahead of our 30% target we set for 2022. The past year brought a broad range of challenges, economic as well as political to the world, thanks to Barrick's integrated value-focused strategy founded on partnerships and sustainable mining, we were able to deliver creditable production and financial results while at the same time, advancing our major growth projects and initiating others. Four years ago, we launched the merger with a very strong team and I am proud to say that over time, they have grown even stronger under the leadership of Mark Bristow and his Executives. Our foundational mantra was best people, best assets, best returns. Our gold assets are demonstrably the world's best, and I think we can now confidently make that claim for our people. As for returns, Barrick's 2022 payout to shareholders was a record $1.6 billion, including dividends declared under our performance dividend policy and $424 million in share buybacks under the program introduced last year. Our returns to shareholders have not been at the expense of organic growth. We continue to invest and roll forward our 10-year gold and copper plans, which show real organic growth on a consistent base case production profile. Our focus this year will be on building Barrick's value foundation, both within and beyond our current borders. Particularly notable are the expansion of the Pueblo Viejo gold mine in the Dominican Republic, which will extend its Tier 1 status by at least 20 years and that of the Lumwana copper mine in Zambia, which will add match to our copper portfolio. Then there is the Reko Diq project in Pakistan based on one of the largest and highest quality undeveloped copper gold deposits in the world. When Reko Diq and the expanded Lumwana are in full production by the end of the decade, they will lift Barrick into the premier league of copper miners in line with our goal of becoming a major producer of this strategically important metal. Barrick remains an industry leader in sustainability and our annual sustainability report published last month, gives a detailed account of what has been achieved and what remains to be done. If you have not seen it yet, it is well worth reading and can be found in the Sustainability section of our website. On our Sustainability strategy, which is an essential part of the way we do business, is based on the belief that the challenges of climate change, poverty and biodiversity loss are inextricably linked and must be managed holistically. Many of our operations are in less developed countries, where they make a substantial economic contribution both to the state and to the people. This is in line with our stakeholder philosophy and holds that the -- sorry, which ranks our host countries and communities, equal to our shareholders and holds that the value we create should also be shared with them. A recent example among many of the support we provide is the $30 million Barrick has pledged to our partnership with the Tanzanian government for the expansion of the country's education infrastructure. While climate change remains a shared global challenge, we must also recognize that blanket policies prescribing greenhouse gas emissions present a particularly severe penalty to underdeveloped countries. Nations that were fortunate to develop in an earlier, more permissive era and which account for the vast majority of legacy emissions, owe it to the developing world to support a just energy transition and the understandable desire to achieve the same modernization for their citizens. The mining industry has to be a part of the solution by not only providing the materials for development, but also investing in the developing world and encouraging the responsible mining of metals and minerals for common benefit. In this regard, as in many others, Barrick continues to show the way. Our proven long-term strategy, our quality assets, our growth projects our world-class team and our social license to operate earned through mutually beneficial partnerships with our host countries continue to differentiate Barrick from our peers. With our banked long-term plans, we and our investors can be confident that Barrick will be sustainably profitable whatever new challenges may arise. And with that, I will hand it over to Mark, who will chair the meeting.

Thank you, John, and a very good morning, ladies, and gentlemen. With your consent, I will ask Dana Stringer, Barrick's Corporate Secretary, to act as Secretary of the meeting and representatives of TSX Trust Company to act as scrutineers. We are pleased to once again return to a hybrid meeting format for this year's meeting, which can be attended in person or virtually by way of live webcast. There are three matters to deal with as part of the formal business of the meeting: the election of directors, the appointment of an auditor and an advisory resolution on executive compensation. Registered shareholders who held shares on March 3, 2023, the record date for this meeting, and duly appointed proxy holders are entitled to vote at this meeting using an electronic ballot. If you are participating through the virtual platform, and are not a registered shareholder or a duly appointed proxy holder you are attending this meeting as a guest. Shareholders who have already voted by proxy do not need to complete an electronic ballot unless you wish to change your vote. The virtual platform will be opening -- opened for voting on all three resolutions at the same time. Once all items of business have been presented, I will give you a few moments to enter your votes and then declare voting closed on all resolutions. Shareholders and proxy holders participating through the virtual platform may submit a question at any time by clicking on the Message icon displayed on your screen, composing a question, and then selecting the send icon. For shareholders present in person, we will conduct the vote on each resolution by ballot. Shareholders who have already voted by proxy do not need to complete a ballot unless you wish to change your vote. Forms of ballot were distributed to shareholders and proxy holders when they registered with the scrutineers. Shareholders and proxy holders who have not received a ballot and wish to receive one should raise their hands so that scrutineers can distribute them to those entitled to vote. Following the formal business of the meeting, we would be happy to respond to questions from the meeting room or submitted through the virtual platform. As the scrutineers have confirmed that a quorum of shareholders is present, I declare the meeting to be properly constituted and the virtual platform open for voting on all resolutions. We will now proceed with the elections of the Directors. I move that Helen Cai, Gustavo Cisneros, Christopher Coleman, Isela Costantini, Michael Evans, Brian Greenspun, Brett Harvey, Anne Kabagambe, Andrew Quinn, Loreto Silva, John Thornton, and myself be elected as Directors of Barrick. If you are participating in the meeting through the virtual platform, please record your vote for directors now. Each shareholder or proxy holder who is present in person should record their vote under item #1 on the ballot. Please keep your ballot for voting on further matters. Ballots will be collected after the conclusion of the last matter of business of today's meeting. When you have finished voting, please sign, and print your name on the ballot. [Voting]

The next item of business is the appointment of an auditor. I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers; LLP be appointed auditor of Barrick to hold office until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until its successor is appointed and that the directors be authorized to set auditors' remuneration. If you are participating in the meeting through the virtual platform, please record your vote now. Each shareholder or proxy holder who is present in person should record their vote under item #2 of the ballot. [Voting]

We will now consider the last item of business. Please note that I will close the virtual platform for voting after this item so please ensure you record your vote on all resolutions. The Board of Directors has adopted a nonbinding advisory vote relating to executive compensation. I move that the advisory resolution regarding the company's approach to executive compensation as set forth in the information circular be approved. If you are participating in the meeting through the virtual platform, please record your vote now. Each shareholder or proxy holder who is present in person should record their vote under Item #3 of the ballot. Once you have completed your ballot, please raise your hand so the scrutineers can collect your ballot. I'll just pause for a little while so that we can complete our ballots. [Voting]

We would now be happy to respond to questions relating to the business of the meeting. We will begin with questions from the meeting room and then respond to questions posted to the virtual platform. For those attending in person, we would ask that you please raise your hand and somebody with a microphone will come to you. Please make sure that you say your name before you present your question and restrict your questions to one. Shareholders and proxy holders participating in our meeting through the virtual platform may submit a question by clicking on the message icon displayed on your screen, composing a question, and selecting the send icon. We would like to give as many of you as I said earlier, as possible an opportunity to participate. So please keep your questions to a single question and try and make them concise. Let's begin with the first question.

Mr. Mark, I'm a journalist and human rights activist from Balochistan. It's a war-torn region in Pakistan under Pakistan's current rule. Thousands of people have been abducted, disappeared and tortured and killed by the Pakistani government to counter social and political movements for Balochistan's right, including right to self-government and control our national resources. I'm also a victim of this bloody crackdown. I lost lots of friends, colleagues, journalists and family members, and they lost their lives because they were peaceful protests against the central government's policies and foreign investors' exploitations. Despite all that, Barrick gold signed an agreement with the central government to extract Balochistan's gold and copper without any social license and consent of the local people and local people protested Reko Diq agreement, calling it direct violation of our rights and development of national resources is under provincial government. But the central government pressurized the provisional government overnight to take our entire authorities to decide the Reko Diq and you signed the agreement with the provincial government many minister of the provincial government are allegedly abducting, killing, civilians, students, human rights activists, including women, one minister, [ communicate ] recently alleged of detaining an entire family, raping a women, killing a women and throwing acid on her face. And my question is to you and how do you claim that the agreements you signed is legitimate, brings prosperity to the people of Balochistan, if it is found to be based on abuses of rights and sign by alleged murderer and rapist? And also in December last year, you held the inference conference asked the Pakistani Government to bring some restrictive law, and Pakistani Government did in bringing a foreign minister law protection and Promotion Act in 2022. And that as don't allow us to go to courts even there is a case in Balochistan High Court one of the lawyer submitted. And neither the provincial government neither central government neither someone from Barrick Gold went to the court for the following [ nine ] hearing until the Supreme Court declared that the National Security matter. How do you explain why it is a National Security matter to publish that agreement's detail? We still don't know what is in an agreement, who did it and how it was done. And there's also barely a blackout. No one is allowed to go there. And your organization recently also met with the Chinese companies and officials in Gwadar and to use the China, Pakistan economic corridor in Gwadar port to transport materials, gold and copper from Barrick, from Reko Diq to around the world and the same CPEC project, because of CPECs, they are killing and update the security forces, deploy their special extra security forces in thousand killing and abducting people, including burning down -- they burned down my parent's house to stop us if speaking against these injustices. And they're using -- you are going to use the same project and same military forces, Human Right Watch, Amnesty International, UN declare them behind the killings and abductions and destroying the houses is. How you can protect them? And we are living in Canada. And we are living in a free country, and we are getting involved in target with the Chinese companies with the Pakistani brutal forces. And I think Barrick's is going to be responsible similar way as the Pakistani Government and military forces.

Sorry, what's your name?

My name is [ Latif Johar].

So, I understand that you are a person seeking asylum in Canada. And so -- and I think the critical thing here is clearly, it's been a long time since you've been back in Pakistan. And you are from Gwadar, and there are a whole lot of things that you don't understand about our project in Pakistan. And so, I'll just explain very briefly, not as perhaps as long as your speech, but I'll try and explain it to you. If we carry on stopping the development of the world, which is what everyone wants to do, particularly people like yourself, how does the world change? How do we bring proper just engagement on behalf of the people of the developing world? So, I'll just take you through a little story about Reko Diq. First of all, Reko Diq was denied development in 2013. We went through a process of international arbitration, which Barrick won and it was awarded a $6 billion award. Instead of forcing the award, we went to Mr. Khan, Imran Khan, the opposition today and suggested to him that there's a better way to do these things for the benefit of all people in both Balochistan and Pakistan and he agreed. And so we sat down and we negotiated a framework agreement, which sets out the way this project is going to be developed. And one of the things we insisted was that the Balochistan province gets 25% of the project, one of the biggest undeveloped copper gold projects in the world. and it's financed. This is the biggest single investment ever in Balochistan. And we negotiated this with Imran Khan and with the then Balochistan Government. It changed, as you know. And the new Pakistan Government affected the framework we had agreed with the Imran Khan Government. It doesn't happen in most places of the world, when one government respects the other government -- previous government's negotiation. We did the same with the Balochistan Government because, again, we negotiated with the previous Balochistan Government elected and this current Balochistan Government accepted the negotiation. I personally visited all the communities around and that will be impacted, mostly positively, in fact, all positively by Reko Diq and held mass town halls, accompanied by the Balochistan Chief Minister, both of them before and today. When we had finished those negotiations, we then approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and we published all the agreements. So, your point about no one knows about these agreements is just nonsense. We published the agreements, and we opened the agreements to debate with the Supreme Court under a 5-bench judge -- a set of judges from the Supreme Court. And they decided on dealing with the questions. They consulted with all interested parties, those in favor and not. And at the end of the day, they judged that this was good for Pakistan, it was good for Balochistan, the judges, not us, not the government, the previous government, or the current government. And today, we have bipartisan support and support from the Balochistan Government and the support from the various regional councils plus the individual little villages. You don't know this because you don't come from there. Sir, you've had your say. This is not an argument. You asked me a question. I'm setting the record straight, okay? So, what I suggest you do is that you do your research and you make arrangements through the offices of Barrick, and we will have somebody have a conversation with you. I didn't ask you to argue with me, sir. So, you made a statement, I did. I'm not. That's not true. Listen, sir, would you like to leave? Okay. Thank you. Just leave. Look don't swear in this audience, please. This is unbecoming of you. And if you have a problem, approach the Supreme Court. You're not -- we are not anywhere there. We don't plan to use the Gwadar port. Please, will you leave? Thank you. Lovely. Thanks. Have a good day, sir. You should go back to Balochistan. All right. Next lady. Thank you.

I brought notes, so I could be brief. My name is [ Rachel Small ]. I'm a shareholder. So as you may have heard, there was a protest outside of this meeting right now in people shouting and in the past month, the communities around the world in Argentina, Dominican Republic, Papua New Guinea, Alaska, Nevada, Pakistan and the Philippines. And as you know, many of the places where Barrick has mines have organized public actions and protests against Barrick mine, they allege oppressive violence, perpetual water pollution, violations of indigenous rights, destroyed livelihoods from Barrick Gold operations. Just last night, I was sent photos of 95 homes in the Dominican Republic with cracks in the walls allegedly from Barrick's operations, the Pueblo Viejo mine. So, I'm hearing and I read the annual report, I see that it claims recognizing respecting human rights are a fundamental value for the company. But as a shareholder, I'm asking, given the wide range of serious human rights and environmental allegations that these communities are raising around the world, what specific actions or steps will Barrick Gold take to restore its relationships with communities? If communities all over the world are protesting your mines, there is a problem with that relationship. So how will you restore the relationships, how will you ensure human rights due diligence increase transparency and provide remedy for the negative impacts?

Thank you for that, [ Rachel ]. Just let me know how many shares do you own?