Barrick Mining Corporation (ABX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and good afternoon to all of you that have made the time to join us today. I'm Mark Bristow, President and CEO of Barrick. Earlier this year, we shared our latest sustainability report, highlighting our progress, challenges and goals. Today, we will walk you through the key takeaways and how we are continuing to build the sustainability strategy grounded in long-term value, resilience and strong partnerships. This session is also about open dialogue. So we welcome your questions and perspectives. Your input truly shapes our journey. We will wrap up with a Q&A, and I encourage all of you to join in. The transparency and accountability remains central to how we operate. Before we go further, I would like to just draw your attention to our cautionary statement, which is available on the website, should you need a copy. I'm joined today here at Nevada Gold Mines by several key members of our sustainability team, who will walk us through today's topics. Grant Beringer, our Sustainability Executive, who leads our global strategy across safety, health, communities, the environment and human rights; Detlev Van Der Veen, our Head of Health and Safety, who's been central to building a strong safety culture across our sites; Duncan Pettit, our Sustainability Manager, who will share more on our initiatives and the impact they're having; Allison Brown, our Director of Reclamation and Closure, who will cover our work on these vital areas. And also joining us here today is Graham Shuttleworth, our Group CFO; Lois Wark, Global Head of Communications and Investor Relations; Cleve Rueckert, Director of Investor Relations; and our full Communications and IR team from Toronto. It's a real privilege to share this update with you, and I hope you'll find the session both informative and engaging. Just a short reminder to navigate to the Sustainability section of our website where you can view and download all our resources, including our policies, the 2024 sustainability report and performance data specific to each asset, our tax contributions report, conflict-free gold and our reporting on modern slavery. So let's start with a quick look at our global footprint and reflection of the diverse places and people we work with. Our business is anchored by a strong portfolio of Tier 1 assets with several right here at Nevada Gold Mines, one of the top gold jurisdictions in the world. These mines make up nearly half of our total production. We also have Tier 1 operations in the Dominican Republic and the DRC, and we're working towards resolving the situation at Loulo-Gounkoto in Mali. Our gold portfolio also includes Porgera in PNG, our Tanzanian operations, Veladero in Argentina, Hemlo in Canada and Tongon in the Côte d'Ivoire. No other company in our sector matches our number of Tier 1 assets. And as a result of our focus on quality, geology, long-life mines and long-term value. On the copper side, we are growing our portfolio, not through big acquisitions, but by developing assets with real potential. Lumwana in Zambia and Jabal Sayid in Saudi Arabia give us a strong base. And with Lumwana's expansion and the Reko Diq project in Pakistan set to come online in 2028, we're on track to double our copper output by the end of the decade. So now I'd like to take a moment to share the story behind these numbers and why we plan so far ahead. This infographic isn't just about performance metrics. It reflects 6 years of progress since I took the lead at Barrick. Our 2019 sustainability report sets goals we've not only met but exceeded, pushing for continuous improvement year after year. It shows how sustainability is built into the very core of our business, not as a separate initiative, but as a key driver of long-term value and strong partnerships. Our approach is clear and focused. We measure what matters most: safety, the environment, community development and human rights. It's about creating a business that lasts, one that brings real benefits to our host countries, communities and shareholders. Looking ahead to 2030 and beyond, the path won't always be easy, but we're confident that responsible mining can create positive change, not just now, but for generations to come. It requires foresight, science-based decision-making and the commitment to invest in lasting assets and partnerships. Sustainability performance is a top priority for us. It's tied directly to executive pay and everyone from leaders to teams is held accountable. At the heart of this is our sustainability scorecard, which tracks our progress in key areas. We're very proud of the fact that we earned an A ranking for sustainability in 2024, reflecting this commitment across the business. Our scorecard built with input from independent experts helps us track how we're doing against global standards while staying true to the realities of our operations. And this year, we adjusted how we weigh each aspect, making all 5 key areas equally important, that is safety, community, human rights, environment and governance. At Barrick, we've been reporting on the SDGs for years, always highlighting the important role mining plays in advancing these goals, especially in rural and developing areas. We've made great strides in tracking and reporting key SDG sub indicators, which Grant will cover later. To recap, our sustainability strategy is built on a holistic and integrated science-based approach that focuses on context-specific solutions and action on the ground. We do not chase third-party ESG ratings. Instead, we keep our focus on the people and the environment where it truly matters at the mines. We're proud to be shaping a mining model that goes beyond compliance, one that builds economies, transforms communities and leaves a lasting legacy. We maintain a strong governance structure where sites manage their own sustainability with oversight, support and accountability from regional and group executives. Our policies are clear, and we apply international best practices across all stages from exploration to closure. This includes the IFC performance standards from the permitting process to resettlement, ensuring independent expertise, peer reviews and transparent public participation. We continue this approach in operations with performance also overseen by independent experts from our independent tailings review Board, external auditors for the Cyanide Code and ISO standards and a third-party assurance for our mining standards. This infrastructure ensures that we don't mark our own homework. Our active role in developing consolidated mining standards reflects our commitment to greater transparency in our sustainability efforts, both within Barrick and across the industry. So now let's dive into the specifics of our performance, and we'll start with safety, which Detlev will cover.

Thanks, Mark, and hello, everyone. Looking back at our safety performance since 2019, we made real progress. Over the past 5 years, injuries have consistently dropped. In 2024, we saw a 40% reduction in lost time injuries with all 16 of our operations having 0 LTIs between June and September and 8 sites went the entire year without one. That said, we still have 3 fatalities due to energy isolation and mobile equipment incidents. These tragic losses remind us that preventing fatalities is our top priority. In response, we've doubled down on our journey to 0, launched nearly 2 years ago and the progress is notable. Our fatal risk management program is evolving with better training and verifications. We've also embedded key elements into our safety framework like leadership accountability, critical control checks and visible leadership. And we've standardized safety protocols across sites, invested in technology and training to boost risk awareness. We're confident that serious injuries and fatalities are preventable. Some of our sites have gone long stretches without any serious injuries, and we're committed to making that the norm. At Barrick, it isn't a finish line. It's a daily commitment. An injury-free day today means starting the journey again tomorrow. That's the heart of our Journey to Zero. Launched in 2022 and refined in 2023, Journey to Zero is a 5-phase road map designed to sharpen our safety focus, strengthen our culture and ensure every person goes home safe and healthy every day. Since its launch, we've aligned safety protocols, invested in behavioral training and implemented real-time risk tools across all sites. At the core are our fatal risk standards, targeting the most serious hazards. We've identified 10 fatal risks, each with a checklist of critical controls that must be in place before any work begins. If a control is missing or ineffective, we stop the work. This is not optional. Everyone has the authority and the responsibility to act. Leadership visibility and critical control verifications or CCVs are central to this effort with over 75,000 CCVs completed in 2024, helping us spot and eliminate risk before harm occurs. As we look to 2025 and beyond, our Journey to Zero is evolving. Our goal isn't just compliance. It's a cultural transformation. Together through courageous leadership, accountability and continuous learning, we're building a safer future where zero harm is not just a goal, but a shared reality. Traditionally, safety performance has been prioritized on lagging indicators that reflect what already has happened, what has gone wrong. While useful, this reactive approach doesn't help us prevent incidents before they happen. That's why we're shifting focus to leading indicators, proactive measures that track what people are doing to stay safe. To support this proactive approach, we've identified 3 key leading indicators to track across our operations and which form part of both the site and leadership scorecards. First, are the critical control verifications, which are directly aligned to our fatal risk and ensure life-saving controls are in place and functioning. We have renewed our focus on near misses and high potential incidents with an emphasis on the quality of reporting and lessons learned. And lastly, we're measuring the percentage of corrective actions completed tracked monthly to ensure accountability and follow-through. By focusing on these indicators, we're strengthening our ability to identify risks early, take meaningful actions and continuously improve our safety culture before harm occurs. We believe this approach will drive a reduction in incident rates. We are starting to see the outcomes of this approach. And in 2024, we had the lowest total recordable injury frequency rate among our ICMM peers. The health and the well-being of our team and local community continues to be a top priority, especially our ongoing fight against malaria. In 2023, we hit our lowest malaria rate ever. And in 2024, we cut it by another 51%. That's a 73% drop since we began operations in Africa. We're staying focused on driving those numbers down even further and working toward eliminating malaria in our communities. Thanks. And with that, I'll hand it over to Grant.

Thanks, Detlev, and hello to everyone on the call. At Barrick, we see mining as a way to drive real lasting economic growth. That means sharing the benefits of what we do by building true partnerships with the countries and communities where we work. It sounds simple, but it takes ongoing effort and a real commitment to creating long-term value. Firstly, we focus on hiring locally from our communities and host countries, then supporting local businesses through procuring goods and services and finally, investing in infrastructure and services that help communities thrive. What really makes our localization strategy work isn't just the big investments we make; it's a ripple effect that follows. When we hire local people, we're not just giving out jobs. We're helping build careers. When we buy from local suppliers, we're not just making purchases, we're helping those businesses grow. And that creates even more jobs in the community. And when we invest in things like infrastructure, education and health care, we're not just supporting communities, we're helping change lives. A healthier, better educated workforce means people can lift themselves out of poverty and help shape a better future, whether by working at our mines or for our suppliers and contractors or perhaps the doctors and teachers we sponsor. That's why our sustainability approach is all about real partnerships because when our host communities succeed, we succeed too. In 2024, Barrick generated over $15.5 billion in economic value across the countries we operate. That included $2.5 billion in salaries for our nearly 27,000 employees. In addition, $7.1 billion was spent on local suppliers. And in terms of taxes and royalties to our host countries, we paid $2.4 billion. Lastly, we invested over $48 million directly into community development. What really sets Barrick apart is our community development committees or CDC model, which is active at every site. These committees are led by the communities themselves, making sure the projects we support truly reflect their needs and aspirations. Last year, we backed community-led initiatives like schools, clinics, water systems and sustainable farming programs. But the real story isn't just the money we invest. It's what that investment unlocks. That's why we don't just track the dollars spent but focus on where these dollars go and the lasting impact they create. As Mark mentioned in his introduction, we've long used the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, as our guiding framework. In 2024, we sharpened our focus by tracking specific SDG sub indicators measured from a reference date, which is generally before mining began through to the current date with clear targets set for 2030. These sub indicators are the building blocks to eradicating poverty, but we can't do it alone. It takes strong partnerships with all stakeholders to reach these goals. Our 2024 report highlights key indicators like the percentage of our communities that have access to clean drinking water or graduation rates at the schools we have built or supported. When it comes to basic health care in places like Pakistan, we are tracking and improving the number of births that are attended by health professionals. Each site now tracks its own SDG-linked metrics, making our impact local, measurable and transparent. This is how we stay accountable, not just to shareholders but to the communities we work alongside. We're also proud to be an official partner of UNESCO's World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development 2025, a global campaign celebrating engineering's role in building a fairer, more resilient future. This year's theme, shaping our sustainable future through engineering perfectly matches Barrick's belief that responsible mining drives real progress on the SDGs. We're excited to share a short film with you now. It was created with the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, showcasing how our Pueblo Viejo mine in Dominican Republic is making a real difference. [Presentation]

While we're focused on Pueblo Viejo, let's highlight one of our biggest community efforts, the resettlement and livelihood restoration program for the new Naranjo tailings storage facility. This project will extend the mine's life past 2040 and keep gold production strong. The resettlement program is best-in-class with 78 families already moved into new homes built to international standards, providing better living conditions, access to services and long-term security. But it's more than just moving homes. We've also rolled out programs like agribusinesses, vocational training and community projects to help families truly thrive. Most importantly, we reached a fair and transparent collective agreement with the community after much open dialogue, showing our shared commitment to sustainable development. We know mining's true potentials only happens when human rights are respected and protected at every site, in every partnership and with every decision we make. Respecting human rights is central to our sustainability strategy, guided by global standards like the UN guiding principles and the OECD guidelines. Our human rights program is proactive and risk focused. It includes a dedicated human rights policy implemented across all operations. We conduct regular independent assessments to identify risks and find ways to improve. We also implement enhanced due diligence for high-risk sites to make sure safeguards are stronger where they matter most. We are clear about our role. We are not the government. While we invest in health care, education and water to support communities, governments must stay responsible for protecting human rights and upholding law and order. Our job is to respect rights, use our leverage responsibly and engage openly with stakeholders. We also support capacity building, but always with the understanding that the state holds the main duty to protect. We are in the process of preparing a stand-alone human rights report, where we will be sharing the summaries of the independent assessments and actions, which we plan to publish by year-end. This is how we stay accountable, not just to global standards, but to the people living and working alongside us. Most of our engagement with the likes of yourselves and other shareholders is focused on the so-called controversies flagged by ratings agencies, especially issues like the allegations against the Tanzanian Police at North Mara, the legacy harm at [ Porgera ] from past decades. I won't go over our positions again now, but we've included plenty of facts and links in our sustainability report, and we're always open to discussing these issues. That said, we disagree with some of the rating agencies' conclusions, particularly claims that these controversies mean we're not complying with the UN Global Compact. We strongly reject that. We've raised these concerns directly with the agencies, none of which are affiliated with the UNGC, whilst we remain full members of the UNGC. We are committed to engaging with ratings agencies to ensure they have the facts for an accurate assessment. It is, however, frustrating when this engagement is ignored and independent findings dismissed. Whilst we respect the role of ratings agencies, the lack of transparency is disappointing. Still, we'll keep providing clear, accurate information to help everyone make informed decisions. Now a quick word on our workforce. I won't get into all the numbers, but I do want to highlight the impressive share of our team that comes from local communities. It really shows our commitment to being a true local partner and makes us one of the most diverse companies in the industry. We're also making progress on gender diversity, but we know there's still work to do. With that, I'll hand things over to Duncan to share our environmental progress this year.

Thanks, Grant, and hello to you all. In 2024, our environmental performance was reflected in our sustainability scorecard, meeting the targets that we have set. Most notably, we've made significant progress in our greenhouse gas emissions performance on both absolute terms and in intensities. That said, we reiterate that our emissions trajectory is nonlinear, and our absolute emissions reductions have outpaced the intensity, which is reflected in the scoring here. In terms of our GHG emissions, our primary hotspots are electricity, our fleet and then limestone emissions specific to Pueblo Viejo. Our key driver for emissions reductions is focus on our electricity sources, whether that be the national grid or our own self-generation. As demonstrated here, we have made significant progress in transforming our power sources for our mines and have mostly executed majority of the electricity opportunities available to us. These changes in our power sources are responsible for most of our GHG reductions to date. We remain engaged with equipment manufacturers to advance technologies to address fleet emissions, while limestone use of Pueblo Viejo is a hard-to-abate emission source that is critical to processing and water management. Last year, we shared with you that we had commenced a life of mine emissions forecasting. The importance of this work was to understand the nonlinear emissions profile, but more importantly, to capture the future of Barrick Mining Corporation, one that sees a 50% increase in gold equivalent production on a 100% basis. With our major projects set to come online before the end of the decade, it was critical to recalibrate our targets. Our original emissions reduction targets set in 2019 were based on a steady-state production model. This slide shows that significant growth in production, along with the expected emissions. However, our emissions intensity forecasts a 17% reduction against our 2018 base year. Along with the significant capital already spent to realize our progress to date, we continue to monitor and plot potential reduction projects on our carbon project pipeline seen here in the fourth quadrant. This work monitors the technological confidence, the GHG emissions reduction potential and costs against our feasibility hurdles. Once the project moves into the IRR target, then we can make informed decisions to realize further reductions. With our updated forecast in hand, we reviewed our emissions reduction targets. Our long-term strategy does not change. We remain focused on a 2050 net zero target. We have set new medium-term targets that reflect our growth this decade, and these targets are intensity-based aligned with our evolving emissions profile and supported by a growing portfolio of renewable energy investments. We continue to execute our Scope 3 emission strategy with a focus on supplier engagement. Our emissions within our supplier categories are disproportionately sitting with a small number of suppliers. As indicated by the middle graph, although our response rate through the engagement is lower than we would like, those suppliers that are able to respond are larger companies with larger GHG footprints. Focusing on these hotspots allows us to be efficient with our resources but also focus on partnerships to affect change. Here, we show our water reuse rates across the group, along with the predominant water sources for each operation. There hasn't been material change year-over-year. However, our reuse rate has increased materially since 2019. This reflects years of consistent performance and a mature water management strategy. While we continue to review site level water balances for incremental improvements, we are operating close to peak efficiency across the group. What sets Barrick apart is our expanded definition of water stress. While most frameworks focus solely on scarcity, we also account for water abundance and recognizing the risk posed by excessive rainfall and runoff are often overlooked when relying on the narrow water stress definition. This is an area where we lead and where our focus continues to grow. This slide shows our biodiversity exposure and opportunities across our sites, a view shaped by both global tools and our local realities. Global data sets often lack the nuance needed for site level decision-making. And that's why we've mapped regional pressures here, not just site-specific risks to better understand where and how nature is under stress. What matters most is how we manage, and measure biodiversity change over time. And that is why we developed the Biodiversity Residual Impact Assessment tool or BRIA in collaboration with third-party experts. This is one of the industry's first comprehensive biodiversity assessment tools. And among others, it's designed to measure site-specific baselines focused on key biodiversity features, including integrity and abundance and track biodiversity performance consistently over time. The rollout of the tool is progressing well, and we have already implemented it in scenario analysis for informed decision-making associated with rehabilitation, restoration and conservation decisions. Our focus remains on delivering measurable conservation outcomes, including supporting the Garamba National Park in the DRC to advancing forest conservation in Zambia and investing in habitat restoration across Northern Nevada. With no net loss as a core commitment, this tool will help ensure our sites are left in a safe and ecologically resilient state post closure. And that's the perfect segue to hand over to Allison.

Thanks, Duncan, and hello to everyone on the call. At Barrick, we view mine closure as a long-term value driver. Integrating closure planning into our business allows us to design and operate our mines in a way that leaves positive, sustainable legacies long after mining ceases. A key focus for us is ensuring that our tailings storage facilities are operated and closed responsibly. This means that all of our facilities must conform with our rigorous internal standards, which are aligned to the global industry standard on tailings management or GISTM. In 2023, we published detailed information about our highest priority tailings storage facilities. And next week, we're releasing our disclosures for the remainder of our facilities. In addition, we continue to work toward bringing our inactive tailings storage facilities into safe closure on a priority basis. Achieving safe closure requires long-term risks to human health and the environment to be thoroughly assessed and mitigated. We currently have 13 facilities in safe closure with 5 more targeted for next year. We differentiate ourselves by incorporating sustainability reviews into our safe closure process. This ensures that stakeholders are engaged, key biodiversity features are conserved, and cultural values are protected in addition to the facilities being safe. And of course, achieving safe closure does not absolve us of our responsibility to monitor and manage our closed facilities. Their status is assessed and confirmed by our independent reviewers and accountable executives at a regular frequency. In parallel, we prioritize execution of progressive closure plans across the group. Each of our operations maintains a multiyear reclamation plan, which is integrated with the mine plan. This allows us to advance closure activities while our mines are still active, which reduces risk and lowers long-term liabilities. And thanks to the dedication of our site teams, we exceeded our annual target for the second year in a row by completing 824 hectares of concurrent reclamation in 2024. And finally, we continue to implement our robust annual liability review process, which allows us to understand the cost drivers and develop fit-for-purpose closure solutions. This disciplined approach has allowed us to maintain one of the lowest reclamation liabilities as a percentage of revenue in the industry. And with that, I'll hand it back to Mark to wrap up our presentation.

Thank you, Allison, and also a big thank you to the other presenters. So ladies and gentlemen, I hope today's session has given you some appreciation of how deep sustainability is woven into everything we do at Barrick. Our long-term science-based approach is delivering real results on the ground. But as we all know, yesterday's progress doesn't guarantee tomorrow's success. And so we're committed to continuous improvement and creating lasting value. Looking ahead, we've got several key projects underway like the Pueblo Viejo resettlement, Lumwana expansion and the safe construction of Reko Diq. At Porgera, we're focused on building strong foundations and fully embedding Barrick's culture and sustainability framework since it went into care and maintenance after the merger in 2019. We fully support the industry-wide push for consolidated responsible mining standards through groups like the ICMM, World Gold Council, Mining Association of Canada and Copper Mark. Barrick and Duncan, in particular, is actively involved in this work because these standards are essential for driving accountability and real progress across the sector. But above all, safety remains our top priority, every shift, every day. In 2024, we saw injury-free months and even LTI-free years at some sites, which is encouraging. But every number means nothing if it doesn't mean every employee returns home safe to their family. And today, we are also releasing our sustainability report summary, a clear, easy to digest version of the full report that will be available on our website right after this discussion. So to wrap up, mining done right is a powerful force for development. It drives entrepreneurship, builds resilient communities and brings people together for collective action. Our sustainability strategy isn't just a framework. It's how we create lasting responsible impact. So ladies and gentlemen, that ends the formal presentation part of today and thank you for your time. We would now like to open it up for questions from yourselves. Lois will speak through the instructions on the screen so that you can ask your question paying attention to the device applicable to you. And finally, a recording of today's sustainability update and the presentation will be made publicly available after the call. Thank you, and over to Lois.

[Operator Instructions]

Any questions? [ Claudia ], have you had anything?

No, there is nothing through here, Mark.

Lois?

No, nothing so far, we'll give another minute to. Yes. I have a question in Q&A from [ Peter Lynch ]. Could you please comment on the situation in Mali? From 2 perspectives, sovereign risk cost of capital, social license to operate, contagion to other less than well-governed nations? And two, will you walk away?

So Peter, it's a very complicated situation that we face in Mali. And right now, there are losers on all sides. I think the point about sovereign risk is real, but it's also a situation that has been forced through a military coup, in fact, 2 military coups. And what the military leadership promised to the people of Mali was a better Mali. And what we've seen is a real attempt to shake down the mining industry. And that's a real concern for us. And as you know, we have been in Mali for 30-odd years and have participated in really transforming that economy and making it into one of the leaders in the mining industry across the African continent. And we've done it through partnerships, as you've heard today, with our local -- with local business and by investing and developing the in-country skills who became leaders of one of the largest gold mines or mining complexes in the world. And what we've seen is that the mine is -- was forced to close earlier in the year and is at a stage now where it's under administration control from an administrator, which we do not agree with. We are, by far, the best qualified to be able to restart the mine and bring it back to make its rightful contributions to the Mali economy. But that requires us to sit down and find a solution for -- that's a win-win solution for both Mali and for Barrick. And I would just point out that Barrick and Mali, the split of economic benefits up until the mine was closed was in favor of Mali. So today, the losers have been Mali and its people. And whilst we stand open at any time to engage and work to find a solution as we have done in numerous times over the last 30 years with different governments. We believe that for us to be able to operate and risk our investors' investment, we need a clear and international level agreement. And that's what we're working towards through the agreed dispute resolution process through the International World Bank exit council. And so that's where we are. I'm not sure about the sovereignty you talk about, but that is -- we always work with sovereign governments, representing the people elected through a ballot. Right now, in Mali, that's not the case. And notwithstanding that, we are still engaged to try and find solutions. And I think the point about social license, I would argue, and I think anyone who's been our partner and still our partner in Mali would support the fact that we had a very strong social license in Mali and that the current situation is not a product of losing our social license. It's a product of a heavy hand trying to garner more money without appreciating that in mining, you need to be able to deliver a sustainable long-term business plan, which we've always done in Mali, having been there for 3 decades.

Thanks, Mark. We have a question from [ Colin Sander Pres ]. Can you please provide an update on any going and/or planned resettlement and he gives examples, and any issues faced, gives examples of Tanzania, Zambia and Mali.

Just say that again.

Can you please provide an update of any ongoing and/or planned resettlement and any issues fixed and give examples of Tanzania, Zambia and Mali.

Yes. Thank you very much. I think we -- I'll pass that on to Grant, who's responsible for leading any resettlements across our group.

Yes. Thanks for the question. Yes, we are conducting a number of resettlement activities right now. We mentioned, obviously, the one at PV for the new tailings storage facility, which has been a process for the better part of 5 years in terms of the engagement with the communities on that right from the beginning in terms of the environmental impact assessment. And I think that's an important point to note is that resettlement is not necessarily separate from our ESHA process. It starts with that process and key to that is that open and honest conversation with the communities right from the beginning, and that had happened. We've had over 3,000 meetings with our communities there in the Dominican Republic to discuss this. So it really has been a participatory process. Zambia and in Tanzania, we're also conducting resettlement action plans at the moment for the expansion projects. And I think you talk about some of the lessons learned through this process. I mean the one thing is that no resettlement is the same as the next. There's always something unique about those resettlements. But core to each of those is that early engagement with the communities and ensuring that you engage holistically with the communities. There's always opportunities for individuals within the community to claim to represent individuals. But for us, it's important to make sure that everyone's voice is heard. And I think we mentioned our CDCs. It's a great method forum to engage with individuals outside of perhaps the resettlement process, but doesn't mean we can't deal with some of the issues and the queries and the uncertainties around resettlement. So I think those are some of the lessons that we have learned, but also recognizing that in any resettlement, the government needs to be involved, too. Often, we request them to assist with host land, host land that ideally is serviced and also has title. And I think that's a very important part of our resettlement plan, which is different to relocation. Resettlement for us is making sure that people are left in a better position than before we started the process. And often, the land that we secure for the host site and often where we build the houses those individuals get titled to that land, which in many developing countries is nonexistent. So -- and that sets them up for success in the future. But beyond that, we also look at the livelihood restoration programs and agribusinesses that we started. So yes, we are learning as we go, but I do believe that with the guidance from the IFC Performance Standard 5 and our experience in doing this, you'll remember that we've completed some of the biggest resettlements in Africa, Kibali notably, that we have that experience to leverage from and make sure that these resettlement programs are success.

We have another question from Lucy Langer. Thanks very much for this presentation. Could you comment on how learnings are being carried forward from the more successful human rights work, eg, work in the Dominican Republic to some of the sites that have been more challenging in your view. What is the biggest challenge to communicating effectively your point of view with third-party ESG rating agencies?

So thank you, Lucy. And before I hand it over to Grant to answer, I think we've tried to explain to you today the importance of sustainability. And we, as Barrick believe that when we mine in a country, we are actually mining as custodians of a national asset. And so we look at it that way. And so every member of our team appreciates our responsibility and engages in a transparent and open and regular conversation with our communities, with our workforce and also with the provincial and federal governments of the countries we operate in. And so with that, I'll pass on to Grant, he can answer the specifics.