Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Barrick 2025 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders. As a reminder, this meeting is being recorded. I would now like to turn the meeting over to John Thornton, Barrick's Chairman. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Barrick's 2025 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders. I would like to introduce the other directors who are here or participating online: Mark Bristow, Helen Cai, Isela Costantini, Brian Greenspun, Brett Harvey, Anne Kabagambe, Loreto Silva. We are also pleased to welcome two people nominated to our board, Ben van Beurden and Pekka Vauramo. Barrick delivered on the commitments we made to you last year. We met our gold and copper production guidance. We increased net earnings by 69%, the highest in a decade. We replaced 102% of our depleted gold reserves at a higher grade. We increased our copper reserves by 224%. At Pueblo Viejo, we continue to ramp up and are targeting nameplate gold production of 800,000 ounces in 2026. The Fourmile Gold Project in Nevada, high grade, tier one potential, and 100% owned, advanced to pre-feasibility stage.
We completed a feasibility study for the Reko Diq project. Reko Diq is one of the largest undeveloped copper gold deposits in the world. It will be a long-life, low-cost, tier one mine. We also completed a feasibility study for the Lumwana expansion, which will double production and extend its life to 33 years. First production from both of these development projects is expected in 2028. With these and other initiatives, we anticipate our gold equivalent production will grow by 30% by 2030. Adding to our tier one gold mine portfolio, copper will account for roughly 30% of our attributable revenue, making Barrick one of the world's leading copper producers. To reflect this more diverse portfolio, we are asking the shareholders of Barrick to approve changing our corporate name to Barrick Mining Corporation. Despite the rising price of gold and other metals, mining equities underperformed.
We considered our shares undervalued and bought back $500 million in 2024. We expect to do more. We have an industry-leading balance sheet, substantial liquidity, and a global portfolio of tier one assets. Our fully funded growth projects should increase per share value well into the future. Today, we bid farewell to Christopher Coleman and Andrew Quinn, who retired from the board. Both played pivotal roles during the transitional period following the Barrick-Randgold merger. Their leadership, strategic foresight, and dedication have been invaluable, and we thank them for their service. We continue to strengthen our board. Following a rigorous review conducted by the Environmental, Social, Governance, and Nominating Committee, we assessed our board's composition and identified where we could add to its strength. We have nominated Ben van Beurden and Pekka Vauramo. Both bring deep expertise in global operations. Both add significant strategic and financial acumen.
We also appointed new chairs for each of our standing committees. We thank all of you, our fellow owners, for your trust, which we will always work tirelessly to maintain and build. I will now hand the meeting over to our President and CEO, Mark Bristow, who will chair the rest of the meeting.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. With your consent, I would ask Joe Heckendorn, 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 host a virtual meeting format for this year's meeting so shareholders can attend virtually by live webcast, regardless of their geographic location. This will allow you to choose to vote on each resolution immediately or wait until each resolution is presented to cast your vote. 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 selecting the Send icon. Following the formal business of the meeting, we would be happy to respond to questions submitted through the virtual platform.
As the scrutineers have confirmed that a quorum of the 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 10. The board's nominees for election are Mark Bristow, Helen Cai, Isela Costantini, Brian Greenspun, Brett Harvey, Anne Kabagambe, Loreto Silva, John Thornton, Ben van Beurden, and Pekka Vauramo. I move that each of the board's nominees be elected. Please record your vote for directors through the virtual platform now.
The next item of business is the appointment of an auditor. The board recommends 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 auditor's remuneration. I move that the board's recommendation be approved. Please record your vote through the virtual platform now. The third item of business is the advisory resolution on executive compensation. The board of directors has adopted a non-binding advisory vote relating to executive compensation. The board recommends that the advisory resolution regarding the company's approach to executive compensation, as set forth in the information circular, be approved. I move that the board's recommendation be approved. Please record your vote through the virtual platform now.
We will now consider the fourth and last item of business set out in the notice of meeting. Please note that I will close the virtual platform for voting after this item. Please ensure that you record your vote on all resolutions. The fourth matter to be voted on is a special resolution to approve a change in our corporate name to Barrick Mining Corporation. I move that the special resolution be approved. 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 platform voting platform. I now 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. 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. Please be reminded that all questions should be concise. Let's begin with the first question.
We'll just give it a moment, Mark. We have no questions at this stage.
Thank you very much. We're happy with the Scrutineers. Now we'll turn to, without any questions, we will now turn to the voting results. The Scrutineers have confirmed that each of the director nominees named in the information circular has been elected with at least 85% of the votes in favor. The appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as auditor has been approved with approximately 93% of the votes in favor. The advisory resolution on company's executive compensation approach has been approved with approximately 91% of the votes in favor. The special resolution has been approved with approximately 98% 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, I thank you for attending our annual general meeting.
This concludes today's meeting. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.