Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Veric 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. As a reminder, this meeting is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to John Thornton, Executive Chairman. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, operator. Fellow shareholders, we meet today under extraordinary circumstances necessitated by extraordinary times. In the space of a few months, the novel coronavirus has swept through much of the world, creating a pandemic, the like of which we have not seen in the modern age. It is a true black swan event. It is unprecedented.
It is having an extreme impact and its consequences are unforeseeable. Barrick's response to the pandemic has been prompt, comprehensive and effective. Actions to protect our people, our partners and our communities have been taken at all our sites and offices. The speed with which this response was planned and executed is attributable to our clear sighted, well prepared and fleet footed corporate and regional management teams. I should also mention that in the spirit of partnership with our host countries, we have thus far donated more than $20,000,000 to them for the purchase of essential medical equipment.
Mark Bristow will give you a detailed account of Barrick's campaign against COVID-nineteen when he presents the results for the Q1 tomorrow. Against this background, we have considered it prudent to hold this year's meeting in a virtual only format via a live webcast. I remind you that registered and beneficial shareholders and their proxies will be able to participate, ask questions and vote in real time through an online portal. Non registered shareholders should follow the procedures set out in the circular in order to vote virtually and ask questions through the live webcast. I would now like to introduce the other members of the Board of Directors who are viewing the live webcast with us.
Mark Bristow, Gustavo Cisneros, Christopher Coleman, Michael Evans, Brian Greenspun, Brett Harvey, Andrew Quinn, Loreto Silva. But now back to the matter of this meeting and what a start Barrick has made to the Q1 of its 2nd year since the merger with Randgold. Having significantly exceeded our own and the market's expectations last year, the company has made its future intentions clear in the annual and sustainability reports published just over a month ago. The annual report featured industry first 5 10 year plans, which show that solely on the organic growth of its portfolio of world class assets, Barrick will be able to sustain its targeted production for at least the next decade, giving investors a new level of confidence in our future. In another industry first, the sustainability report published our ESG scorecard produced with the input of independent sustainability consultants.
At a time when ESG has become a key investment metric, such transparency demonstrates Barrick's commitment to a high level of social responsibility as well as our willingness to have our performance on this front publicly audited. Including the Randgold merger, Barrick has successfully completed 5 major value adding corporate transactions in 15 months, most notably the Nevada Gold Mines merger. None of these would have been possible had it not been for a streamlined structure, newly motivated, strengthened and empowered management teams and a back to basics geocentric strategy. Between the 2 legacy companies, we already owned the best assets. We have now also gone a long way towards marshaling the best people in order to achieve our goal of delivering the best returns.
In our drive to make Barrick the model of a modern mining business, we are placing particular emphasis on the recruitment of young, talented people who are more representative of our regional demographics, whom we mean to grow into our next generation of leaders. Their fresh perspectives will also enable Barrick to meet the fundamentally changing expectations of investors and society at large. I commend Mark Bristow and his people for their above and beyond delivery of the past year and a quarter. I would also like to thank my fellow directors on the board as well as the members of the International Advisory Board, whose guidance on matters of strategy and governance has been invaluable. Consistent with our commitment to increasing the diversity of the Board, we appointed Ms.
Loreto da Silva as an independent director. She was the Chilean government's Minister of Public Works and is currently the chairwoman of the country's National Petroleum Company. We are well advanced in our search for a second female candidate with a high level of appropriate experience and preferably with an understanding of doing business in Africa. I will now pass over to Mark, who will chair the meeting.
Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. With your consent, I will ask Dana Stringer, Barrick's Corporate Secretary, to act as secretary of the meeting and representatives of AST Trust Company to act as scrutineers. In keeping with our commitment to the health and safety of our shareholders, employees and the broader community, as John mentioned, this year in response to the global COVID-nineteen pandemic, we are hosting our annual meeting of shareholders through this virtual meeting platform, which allows registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders to vote and ask questions regardless of physical location, which would otherwise not be possible in these unprecedented times. There are 3 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. The virtual platform will be opened for voting on all three resolutions at the same time.
This will allow you to choose to vote on each resolution immediately or wait until each resolution is presented to who held shares on March 6, 2020, the record date for this meeting and duly appointed proxy holders are entitled to vote at this meeting using an electronic ballot. Our information circular and other proxy materials contain full details about how to register yourself or a proxy holder to participate at today's meeting. If you 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. Once all items of business have been presented, I will give you a minute to enter your votes and then declare voting closed on all resolutions.
Shareholders and proxy holders participating in our meeting 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 selecting the Send icon. Following the formal business of the meeting, we would be happy to respond to any questions 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. The annual report, the consolidated financial statements and the auditor's report have been mailed to shareholders who have requested them. We would be pleased to deal with any relevant questions during the general question period.
We will now proceed with the election of directors. The board has determined that the number of directors to be elected at the meeting is 9. As Chair, I move that Gustavo, Cisneros Christopher Coleman Michael Evans Brian Greenspun Brett Harvey Andrew Quinn, Loretta Silver, John Thornton and myself be elected as directors of Varek. Please record your vote for directors through the virtual platform now. The next item of business is the appointment of an auditor.
As Chair, 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 the auditors' remuneration. We will now consider the 3rd and last item of business set out in the notice of meetings. Please note that I will close the virtual platform for voting after this item. So please ensure that you record your vote on all resolutions. The Board of Directors has adopted a non binding advisory vote relating to executive compensation.
As Chair, I move that the advisory resolution regarding the company's Please record your vote through the virtual platform now. For those of you who have not voted on all of the resolutions, please do so now as I will shortly close the virtual voting platform. I declare the voting platform closed and the formal part of this meeting is now concluded. We will report the voting results once the scrutineers have tallied the votes. We would now be happy to respond to any questions relating to the business of the meeting.
And as a reminder, shareholders and proxy holders participating in our meeting through the virtual platform may now 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 possible an opportunity to participate, so please be reminded that all questions should be concise. Let's begin with our first question.
Mr. Chairman, we've received a question from Catherine Coomans, and it reads as follows. My name is Catherine Coomans. I am a proxy holder for Jennifer Mills. My questions are regarding your North Mara and Porgera mines.
Last year, at this AGM, I raised the human rights abuses that continue to be perpetrated on local Korea people through excess use of force by private and public security forces at the North Mara mine in Tanzania. These assaults sometimes leading to death continue. Now just 5 years after you settled legal claims on behalf of victims out of court, you are again facing legal action in the courts in the U. K. On behalf of new victims of the same abuses.
My questions are, as most of the shootings and killings are perpetrated by the police you pay to guard the mine, when will you stop using armed police as part of your security apparatus at this mine? And when will you reform your flawed grievance mechanism so that it operates completely independently from mine personnel? The second question is with regard to the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea, you have been negotiating with B and I'm afraid it terminates there.
All right. Thank you, Catherine. Thank you for your question. I do recall the same or similar question last year. Just to point out that Barrick is a member of Voluntary Principles for Security and Human Rights.
We have a memorandum of understandings with our police force in Tanzania and PNG as we do in other countries in which we operate. And being part of the voluntary principles, we commit to external assurance on a regular basis. And the last time the Tanzanian operations were assessed by independent insurers was in 2018. I'm not sure what you mean by continue to be perpetrated, but certainly, there is a list of historical accusations. And as you know, we and when we took back Acacia, we engaged with the accusers and their representatives, and we suggested that they seek we seek a solution to their claims through competent courts and authorities.
We suggested that we start in Tanzania. They declined that suggesting that those courts and that procedure would not be independent or competent. We then, in discussion with their legal representatives, agreed to waive the jurisdiction and have these accusations heard in a UK court. We were party to that engagement and that solution. And that process is now ongoing and it would be presumptuous of me to comment any further.
Let the courts do their job and see what comes up with it, what they come up with. Of course, we do not speak for the police, and the police are there to maintain community peace and law and order, and we are part of that community. As I indicated, we have a memorandum of understanding with them. They are not allowed to come onto our sites, and they have special rules of engagement, which we've agreed to. And that's all I can say.
And I can tell you that I have operated mines in many places around the world and in particular, in Sub Saharan Africa over my career, and we have always subscribed to the voluntary principles and been able to operate. The other thing I would point out is that none of our security forces, that is mine security, carry lethal weapons. It is the job of the police, the national police to keep law and order in the countries in which we operate. I hope that answers your question. On Porgera, the question was incomplete, but I assume it was a similar question.
And again, we've addressed that as we've addressed the Tanzania issues. And I would just point out that we take grievances very seriously. And we have been able to, over the last few months, reduce the number of grievances outstanding and we pride ourselves in addressing those grievances in a proper and detailed manner.
We have a second question from Catherine Coomans. With regard to the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea, you have been negotiating with the PNG government and the Porgera Landowners Association for over 2 years and still your application for a mine lease renewal was recently turned down. This brings into question your social license to operate. At the same time, in these 2 years, you have failed to follow-up on the recommendations of your own consultants, BSR, to work with the local human rights organizations to create a credible grievance mechanism for nearly 1,000 claims of human rights abuses that have been filed with the mine. My questions are, will you agree to advocate for inclusion of the local human rights organizations in any further negotiations around the future of the mine?
And when will we start to work with the local human rights organizations to create a credible and equitable grievance mechanism for victims of mining related human rights and environmental harm.
So Catherine, I'll just correct you, maybe you don't follow the news, but we have engaged and with the support of the recognized Porgra Landowners Association, recognized both by the government and by the courts in Papua New Guinea have engaged in proposing an extension to the SML. And on that particular subject, again, I'm sure you are aware that there was a court case last Friday. The judge has instructed BNL, the investor and the government of Papua New Guinea to engage together to seek a win win resolution going forward, and we are due back in court on Friday. And that order has specifically prevented the parties from making any public comment. And so I will leave it at that.
On the human rights allegations and also on the, grievances. Again, as I pointed out, we are really and myself personally, we monitor the grievances. We use and recognize and engage with NGOs and other representative bodies within and outside the country. We and I have been through the BSR report, and we've taken note of the recommendations and conclusions that were in that report. And I feel and certainly, I've met on a number of occasions personally with the community and community representatives in Porgera.
And I believe that it's a very complex situation, social situation. If you've been there, you would understand this. But I have no doubt, and I quote community members pointing out that BNL is the only real competent support and responsible community organization in that region. And we play and our teams, CSR teams play a very big role in managing the social situation within and around the Porgero
Valley. Mr. Chairman, we've received a question from MacDian Robert Repari. My name is MacDian Robert Repari. I'm from Porgera PNG.
My question is, does Barrick have any plans for the 9 40 cases identified by its own commissioned report in search of justice pathways to remedy at Porgera Gold Mine? If so, then when? And if no, then why? So
Magdeon, again, that engagement and process has been happening for a long time. And as far as I'm concerned, we have dealt with all the issues outstanding with that particular BSR report, if that is the report that you are referring to. On new grievances, again, we deal with those grievances. We effectively work to close them out. And then there are procedures, which where we can't close them out, where they move to a different forum to be able to be addressed.
Mr. Chairman, there are no further questions.
So if there are no further questions from the shareholders or proxy holders, I would be happy to open the floor to questions from guests. No further questions. So if there are no further questions, we'll now turn to the voting results. The scrutineers have confirmed that each of the 9 director nominees named in the information circular has been elected with at least 87% of the votes in favor. The appointment of Pricewaterhouse LLP as auditor has been approved with approximately 93% of the votes in favor.
And the advisee resolution on the company's executive compensation approach has been approved with approximately 94% of the votes in favor. Detailed final voting results of all the items of business at today's meeting will be filed on SEDAR. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending our annual meeting.