Management Approach

At Barrick, responsible environmental management is central to our success as a leading gold mining company and we endeavour to continually improve our performance. Our goal is to minimize our footprint and safeguard the environment, now and for future generations.

We are governed in our approach to environmental management by our corporate Environmental Policy. The Policy outlines our commitment to pollution prevention, safeguarding the environment, educating our employees and communities about our environmental commitments and applying proven management practices to prevent or mitigate negative environmental impacts. Performance indicators help us measure how well we are performing.

Application of the Barrick Environmental Management System (EMS) Standard at each of our operations helps us realize these policy commitments. The EMS applies to Barrick activities at all properties, including joint ventures where we are the operator. It consists of 16 elements. Each element contains a statement of the standard of environmental conduct that Barrick expects, followed by a list of Management System Requirements. The requirements represent the specific systems, practices, procedures or tasks that are, at a minimum, necessary to meet the EMS Standard.

The EMS also provides the threshold for an operation to move to ISO14001 certification. Barrick’s South American mines have been ISO14001 certified for a number of years and, in 2011, the North America Region achieved certification. Several operations in our other regions are currently pursuing certification.

By the end of 2011, we had achieved Cyanide Code certification or re-certification at 22 of the 23 Barrick mines which use cyanide. One of our operations was conditionally re-certified in 2011 and is pursuing improvements to achieve full re-certification in 2012. These certifications are an important aspect of Barrick’s responsible environmental management.

We conduct environmental audits at our operations and projects to verify that management systems are adequate to ensure performance commitments are achieved, and that our operations are in compliance with government regulations and internal standards. When audits identify deficiencies, our investigations determine the fundamental causes underlying these deficiencies so that effective corrective and preventative actions can be implemented.

In the following sections we report on 100 percent of data for our wholly-owned operations and our joint ventures where we are the operator or where there is joint managment.

Barrick actively participates in the following ICMM committees: Environmental Stewardship Task Force; Climate Change Task Force; Water & Mining Working Group; IUCN & Biodiversity Working Group; Integrated Mine Closure Working Group; Materials Stewardship Task Force; and Mercury Working Group. Barrick currently chairs the Environmental Stewardship Task Force and the Mercury Working Group.

Responsible Person:
Vice President, Environment