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Under siege by the Occupy Toronto movement, Canada’s largest gold miner spent a large part of its annual general meeting Wednesday defending its track record as a responsible corporate citizen.
A heavy police presence ensured most Occupy protestors remained in Simcoe Park across the street from the Metro Convention Centre where Barrick Gold Corp. held its annual gathering of shareholders.
But even before a proxy holder representing indigenous groups in Chile raised some difficult questions inside the corporate meeting, Barrick founder and chairman Peter Munk acknowledged the protestors’ presence.
“Last night, I went home and to avoid the demonstrators who try to Occupy Wall Street, who try to Occupy Bay Street — I’m sure they’re all well-meaning and determined people and I was going to ask my driver, don’t avoid them, take me there. I want to talk to them. I don’t have all the facts — but wiser heads than me prevailed and I was taken home through a difficult route.”
But when he got home, Munk said, he called his office and asked for a list of all the things the company has voluntarily done to support the communities where it operates. The list, which he read at the meeting, included dozens of projects, from clean water to affordable housing to schools and wind farms, in places like Chile, Peru, Papua New Guinea and Tanzania.
He acknowledged these are not just worthy projects but the price of admission in many countries, where other less adept rivals have failed to win “the social consensus” required to maintain their operating license.
While Barrick has never lost a license, the cost of winning support is clearly rising. It took Barrick 11 years to win approval to operate a mine at Pascua-Lama on the border of Chile and Argentina, Munk noted.
Earlier in the meeting, Barrick boosted its quarterly dividend by 33 per cent after reporting first quarter earnings rose 3 per cent to $1.03 billion, or $1.03 per share. Much of the gain was driven by a 22 per cent rise in the price of gold to $1,691 U.S. during the quarter.
Revenue rose 18 per cent to $3.64 billion. Both earnings and profit missed analysts estimates, according to Thomson Reuters. The company reports in U.S. dollars.
Barrick shares closed down $1.09 at $38.80 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Not everyone agrees with Munk’s assessment of the company’s performance outside Canada, said Rebecca Bartel, a spokesperson for the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network.
The indigenous Diaguita community in Chile doesn’t want large-scale open pit mining by foreign multinational companies, she said. They’re concerned about the impact on the environment and their way of life.
For the rest of this article, please go to the Toronto Star website: http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1171791–barrick-defends-itself-against-occupiers