Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Barrick 2020 Fourth Quarter Results Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. At anytime during the conference, should you need operator assistance, please press star and zero. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded and a replay will be available on the Barrick's website later today, February 18th, 2021. I would now like to turn you over to Mark Bristow, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much, and good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome again to our presentation of Barrick 2020 and Q4 results. The past year has been one of delivery and development in the face of unprecedented challenges. We delivered on our production guidance and at the same time, we continued our key projects. Amongst the Pueblo Viejo expansion plan, the Turquoise Ridge, the Goldr ush exploration declines, and the underground mine at Gounkoto. We improved our understanding of our ore bodies by putting geology front and center, and we can now optimize our mine plans on firm foundations. The sale of non-core assets generated the $1.5 billion we promised, and by cleaning up our portfolio, we aligned it with our strategic focus of Tier One mines.
Our world-class business needs a global presence, a Tier One asset in any jurisdiction, which means that some of our operations are located in more challenging geopolitical domains. In addition to the coronavirus pandemic, last year, we also had to deal with the Argentina financial crisis, a coup in Mali, the major impact of political power event in the DRC, and the closure of Porgera in Papua New Guinea. Barrick has clearly demonstrated that it can manage risks across a broad range of assets with the leadership capable not only of running a large and complex business, but also of recognizing and realizing new opportunities. Please take note of this cautionary statement, and for those who need more time to review, it is available on our website.
The key in the past year's performance was the effectiveness of our ESG strategy, which is powered at all levels by a long-established partnership philosophy and our close relationship with all our stakeholders, from investors to host communities. This was evident in Barrick's successful COVID containment programs, which buffered the impact of the pandemic on our business and our people. And also enabled us to provide much needed and welcome support to our host countries. E in ESG has been getting most of the attention recently. I would argue that its social dimension is as important. I'm particularly concerned that the issue of poverty, arguably the greatest problem facing mankind, is not more prominently on the agenda. The world's poorest people live in its poorest. Easing their lot will require global and not just [audio distortion].
This is not to say that we should underestimate the gravity of the environmental challenge. Barrick has a clear roadmap for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, which is based on climate science and operational realities rather than wishful thinking or long-dated aspirations. Our landmarked targets listed here are under constant review. All our operations have practical plans for transitioning to cleaner and more efficient energy sources and water management, and we are cognizant of the necessity to innovate new power plans for our future mines. In short, Barrick aspires to be an industry leader in ESG, as in other things. This is our health and safety scorecard for 2020. And as you can see, there was a significant improvement with both lost time and total recordable injuries decreasing by big margins.
Unfortunately, as previously disclosed, an otherwise impeccable record by a tragic fatality at Kibali in November of 2020. There were no high-severity environmental incidents across the group during the year, and the number of medium-severity events declined. As these numbers show, we continue to reduce our emissions and improve our water usage and recycling rates. You see, the water we return is in better shape than the water we receive. The photographs on the right show one example of the difference we've made since taking over North Mara, where one of our priorities was to flip our water management plan. Our social license to operate requires the goodwill of our host communities and is closely aligned with our partnership philosophy.
During 2020, fully functional community development committees were established at all our operational sites, and they were instrumental in deciding how best to invest the more than $26 million we spent on quality of life improvements in the course of the year. Last year, we set ourselves very specific objectives. As you can see here, we ticked all those boxes. We met our production target, delivered on our business plans, and fully capitalized on the higher gold price and copper prices. We increased free cash flow to an annual record of $3.4 billion against a 27% rise in the gold price, and we achieved our goal of zero net debt by the end of the year. It is worth calling that as recently as 2013, Barrick was burdened by a debt of more than $13 billion. The quarterly dividend has also tripled since the merger with Randgold.
Since it was announced more than two years ago, we've, as I said, tripled the quarterly dividend. And in addition to the [audio distortion] dividend, as you all have read today, we are proposing a capital return to shareholders of $750 million to be paid in three tranches through this year. This return is sourced from the proceeds of the sale of our stake in Kalgoorlie, as well as other non-core assets since 2021, in line with our policy of returning surplus funds to our shareholders. The solid operating results were driven by another performance from Pueblo Viejo Gold, the Dominican Republic, the ramp of Bulyanhulu in Tanzania, and the continued improvement at the Turquoise Ridge complex in Nevada. As I noted earlier, production was at the midpoint of guidance, and total cash costs and all-in sustaining costs were within the guidance despite higher royalties due to the gold price.
Our record free cash flow and zero net debt are particularly gratifying features of the numbers, as are the very significant returns we delivered to our shareholders. It's also worth noting that Moody's has upgraded our rating Baa1, which is the largest in the gold sector. It's my view that the consolidation of the gold industry is not yet complete. And as these numbers show, Barrick is well-equipped to play a big part in future developments. Now to North America and our operations there. We start with a five-year outlook for that region. Going forward are advancing our ore body knowledge, deepening the production profile, and managing all-in sustaining costs. This is consistent with our November Investor Day, with some capital shifted from 2020 into both 2021 and 2022. There are also some opportunities to implement this that I will touch on in the next few slides.
In Nevada, the best potential for near to medium-term life of mine advances are at the North Leeville, Fourmile, and Goldrush, as well as the REN Project at Goldstrike. The best opportunity for significant new discoveries are in the area between Turquoise Ridge and Twin Creeks, between Pipeline and Robertson, and at the Cortez complex in Carlin Basin, south of Gold Quarry. I have great expectations for the North Leeville area, and the team is currently prioritizing the improvement of the geological model and drilling to accelerate the delivery of ounces into the Carlin mining plan. Results to date from five of seven drill holes have confirmed at least two emerging high-grade areas above the average reserve grade at Leeville. Drilling closer to the existing mine infrastructure continues to extend the Turf ore body to the north and the west.
The Carlin Complex is richly endowed with gold deposits, and this flagship asset has some very exciting opportunities, not only for resource expansion, but also for new world-class discoveries. In 2020, the Carlin Complex delivered at the midpoint of its production guidance and also kept costs well within the guidance range. This year and the next will see substantial investment in the future. In addition to growing ounces through exploration at North Leeville, Rita K, and REN, the introduction of improvements to increase processing options, as well as lower costs also on the agenda. Like Carlin, the Cortez Complex has a wealth of opportunities for expansion and growth. The Goldr ush and Fourmile discoveries are good examples of our policy of first understanding the geological framework and then building the exploration programs around that.
At Fourmile, the improved confidence in our geological understanding is demonstrated by our first declaration of an indicated resource just under 500,000 oz at around 10 [audio distortion] ton, while still growing the inferred resource to 2.3 million oz at around 11 grams per ton by including Sophia. I have no doubt that this resource will grow once we drive the development from Goldr ush and infill drill the Fourmile Project. Still in the Cortez Complex, Pipeline-Crossroads is a world-class legacy deposit. And we continue to grow the resources at the Robertson deposit. We are also progressing the feasibility work at Robertson while taking a closer look at what lies between them. Cortez itself exceeded the top end of its production guidance last year. The Gold rush Project is on track to expose its first ore in the first half of this year.
And the government's record of decision is now expected in the first quarter of 2022 rather than the [audio distortion] of this year. This, however, will not impact the mine plan, with the focus now on better understanding of the ore body as we open it up while we finish the underground feasibility study for the standalone Gold rush portion. We're exploring the possibility, as I indicated earlier, of reducing the cost and timing of drilling at Fourmile through underground access from Gold rush. Once Gold rush and Fourmile are up and running, they will boost the Cortez Complex's annual production and ensure its Tier One status for years to come. Turquoise Ridge had the highest grades in the industry that was developed as a low tonnage, high-grade mine, and not based on a proper geological model. This project and mine represents a significant opportunity for improvement.
The thing has two huge deposits at either end of an 8 km trend, both with a historically poor geological understanding and a lot of potentially prospective ground between them. We've done a great deal of work on this since the formation of Nevada Gold Mines, and we're starting to generate new targets in what was thought to be a maturing district. As shown in the section, the newly discovered midway fault between Turquoise Ridge and Twin Creeks could be an important district-scale mineralization control. The Turquoise Ridge Complex has been struggling and production for the year fell short of guidance. There was a marked turnaround, however, in the fourth quarter, and ongoing optimization should deliver further improvements for this year, including a ramp up in underground development. Construction of the third shaft remains on schedule and within budget, with commissioning planned for late 2022.
The shaft is designed to be able to increase hoisting capacity, improve ventilation, and shorten haulage distances for that operation. Still in Nevada, Phoenix and Long Canyon are small but very efficient low-cost operations, both exceeding the top end of production guidance and delivering exceptional margins. North of the border in our home country, Canada, Hemlo has made a remarkable journey from survival mode to a potential Tier Two mine. At the time of the merger, we doubted whether it was actually a profitable asset. But after unpacking the geology and rebuilding the models, we found many opportunities, not only to turn it into an efficient underground operation, but also to build its reserves and extend its life. Most notably, recent drilling has indicated the potential for a discrete parallel mineralized structure to the west of the main C -Zone.
Further drilling is planned in 2023 to improve the geological understanding of this area. Last year, Hemlo beat the top end of its production guidance, and this year a separate portal development will access its upper C -Zone, providing a third mining front and increased flexibility. Mining there is expected to begin in the second half of this year. Latin America is a region with many challenges, mainly legacy issues that impact on our social license to operate, but also an abundance of opportunities. We've put a lot of work into fixing our businesses and relationships there. Last year, I personally visited the region four times with Mark Hill, who leads that region of Barrick, to review progress at our operations and also to meet with governments and community leaders, and really invest in our new management teams across that region.
All the problems have been or are being addressed, and even the situation in Papua New Guinea is progressing to what I trust will be a reasonable, exceptional- acceptable resolution to Barrick as well as the government. In the meantime, we have left Porgera out of our guidance and intend to add it back once we are able to reach an agreement with the various stakeholders in Papua New Guinea, including government and the landowners. I would also point to the reduced production forecast at Veladero compared to what we shared with you at our November Investor Day. This is mainly due to the transition plan to the new Phase 6 -10 project from the old valley leaching facility we have only recently finalized with the government.
We have a new exploration and new business team for the region. And as a result, are working to expand our footprint and open up new opportunities across South America. I also refer you to Tuesday's announcement on the sale of Lagunas Norte, this is in Peru, which is part of our continued rationalization of our portfolio that does not fit with our long-term investment strategy. At Pueblo Viejo, new targets have been identified. A particularly interesting one is being developed south of the Moore pit within the joint venture mining lease. Our recently established Pueblo Grande Project, immediately adjacent to the PV tenements, has secured a strategically important parcel of land, which is critical for PV's expansion plan. Pueblo Viejo staged a great second half recovery, posting a mill throughput record for the second straight year to achieve its production guidance.
The expansion project will realize the operation's full potential by unlocking just over 9 million oz of gold currently excluded from reserves due to the lack of adequate tailings and storage facility. T he plant is being upgraded to handle throughput of 14 million tonnes per annum, and as a consequence, we are planning to process more stockpile material there this year. This is the reason for slightly lower production guidance compared to 2020, and i s in line with the forecast disclosed at our November Investor Day. The team is continuing its work with the new government and the community to secure land for the new TSF. The work associated with the TSF geotechnical and feasibility study is expected to be completed this year. In Veladero- Pascua Lama district, a drilling program to test the link between the underlying deposit geology and metallurgical characteristics is underway.
Around Veladero, there are still a number of untested opportunities to expand the resource and reserve base of both Lama and Veladero. Drilling to extend Veladero pit shell was also limited due to the impact of the pandemic, and we expect to catch up with that during this summer in 2021. And in the El Indio region, short of a new greenfields discovery, our strategy is to build a critical mass of smaller deposits to create a mining complex capable of meeting our criteria. As we reported earlier, Veladero's production was impacted by the pandemic-related quarantine and movement restrictions imposed by the Argentine government. This also temporarily delayed the mine's transition to the new Phase 6 heap leach facility, which is on track for completion now by the end of the first half of this year.
As agreed upon with the government, heap leach processing will be reduced during the transition, impacting production. However, the mine's performance is expected to improve in the second half of the year after the new facility has been commissioned. Veladero's connection to Chile's power grid at Pascua Lama should be completed by the end of this year as well, which will also reduce unit costs for the operation. In Papua New Guinea, we have been engaging the government in discussions to seek a mutually acceptable way forward for the reopening of the Porgera Mine, which as you know, has been in maintenance since the government refused to renew its special mining lease in April 2020. I am, in fact, speaking to you from the capital, Port Moresby, today, where the discussions are occurring. If all goes well, Porgera should reopen this year.
But for the time being, as I said in my introduction, we have excluded it from Barrick's 2021 guidance. The Africa and Middle East region has largely, as expected, driven the post-merger repositioning and reinvigoration of Barrick. Its five-year plan remains intact, steady, while costs and CapEx coming down. And there are plenty of opportunities to drive this performance beyond the timeframe you see here. Our immediate objective for that region is to either extend the life of mine of Tongon or replace its production after 2023. The Loulo District in Mali is still our prolific generator of new ounces. Loulo-Gounkoto, again, more than replaced depleted reserves last year, and there are big opportunities for more in both the Loulo and Gounkoto mining leases.
Despite the political unrest in Mali, the complex exceeded the top end of its production guidance, highlighting again the importance of our strong in-country partnerships and the agility of its management. Its 10-year outlook is enhanced by the complex's third underground mine below the very profitable Gounkoto pit, which is on track to deliver its first ore development tonnes in quarter two. And studies for a potential fourth underground mine at Loulo 3 are progressing. Our exploration group is also making good progress on advancing the targets across in Senegal on our Bambadji joint venture. In Côte d'Ivoire, brownfields exploration has added three years to Tongon's life, and a recent review identified 11 follow-up satellite targets with the potential to meet our criteria and extend the life of mine further. Situated 15 km from Tongon, the Muteta target is scheduled for resource definition and reserve conversion.
The Côte d'Ivoire remains an attractive destination because of its prospectivity and relatively sophisticated infrastructure. We continue our generative opportunities throughout the country with the aim of increasing our new ground holdings. For reasons beyond its control, Tongon has led a troubled life. It has always managed to be very profitable. And last year, it exceeded its budgeted production for the first time in its history. Its extended life of mine plan has been supported by additional exploration optionality in exchange for a lower production profile at slightly higher costs. Kibali grew its total reserves, net of depletion, for the successive year. Kibali was initially planned to progress to underground-only mining. But the discovery of a series of significant open pit deposits has allowed us to gain processing flexibility by balancing the ore feed over the mine's 10-year plan.
The updated plan increases the mine's gold production to more than 750,000 oz a year, sustained throughout the current period. Kibali produced near the top end of its guidance range in 2020, while total cash costs and all-in sustaining costs were at or below the bottom end of that range. Kibali is the most highly automated underground mine in the Barrick group and a global leader in this field, which enables it to maximize its opportunities as well as its efficiencies. Its three hydropower stations keep its energy costs down, and the recent introduction of a battery-driven power performance system offers a further reduction of diesel-generated power. Turning now to Tanzania. We've achieved a great deal in this country since taking over the operations of the Acacia mines there.
On the exploration front, the focus on getting a proper understanding of the geology is delivering exceptional results, with North Mara increasing its mineral reserves net of depletion in 2020, while a substantial growth of resources indicates a significant potential for extending its life of mine. Operationally, North Mara continues to improve, achieving production at the upper end of its guidance. There's still a lot to do to realize this mine's full potential, starting with a new oxygen plant and an upgrade of the cyclone cluster to increase recovery rate. I believe once we've brought North Mara and Bulyanhulu into the lower half of the cost curve, we'll be able to deliver another Tier One complex in Barrick's portfolio.
Exploration at Bulyanhulu is producing some very encouraging results. As our understanding of that ore body improves, it's becoming clear that it's of world-class proportions with a measured and indicated resource of some 4.3 million oz and an inferred resource of 8.3 million oz. And still lots to do to achieve profitable conversion to reserves. The ramp up of the underground mining and processing at Bulyanhulu is on track and will continue through the first half of the year, reaching steady state annualized production into 2022. In the meantime, the feasibility study for an optimized mine plan is being progressed. Our third Tanzanian mine, Buzwagi, is scheduled to enter care and maintenance on its way to closure starting in the third quarter of this year.
Armed by the introduction of on-site mineral resource management and an intensified focus on geology, we've spent the two years since the merger improving our knowledge of the legacy Barrick ore bodies. We've made significant progress in developing life of mine optimizations based on high confidence geological models as well as new operating plans, ounce profiles, and cost forecasts. When excluding the impact of the disposal of Massawa, our total resources grew in 2020 as expected off the back of increasing inferred resources, while 76% of reserves were replaced net of depletion. This was also done while maintaining our above industry average resource and reserve grade and is a testament to our focus on ore body quality, which differentiates us from the rest of our industry. As our understanding of the ore bodies increases and as our drilling coverage improves, the potential for resource conversion to reserves will grow.
But it will take some time for the group to reach the replacement levels of the Africa and Middle East region. It is also worth noting that we have continued to clean up our portfolio with a focus on assets and opportunities that meet our specific strategic objectives and investment filters. This is in line with our commitment to look to attract the best people to work with us, to develop and mine the best assets in order to deliver long-term, sustainably profitable results. Our tenure guidance is an important tool to manage our sustainable profitability strategy. This year's production, as I have indicated, will be impacted by the continued closure of Porgera and the heap leach concession at Veladero. But there are significant opportunities ahead for improvement. As I noted earlier, we have reason to believe that the Porgera issue could still be resolved positively.
The five-year outlook for copper is also positive, with all the trends, as you see on this slide, heading in the right direction. Our copper portfolio made another significant contribution to the group's bottom line last year. Though the advancement of Zaldívar's chloride leach project was impacted by COVID-19 restrictions in Chile, Lumwana in Zambia produced near the top end of its guidance, and Jabal Sayid exceeded its guidance. Costs for the overall copper portfolio were better or at the bottom of their guidance ranges. The change of copper reserves year-on-year principally reflect depletion through mining. With Lumwana now operationally stable, there's significant exploration potential to grow resources and reserves on the property, while extensions on Lode 1 at Jabal Sayid are progressing through pre-feasibility and should soon add to its reserves.
As many of you know, Lumwana has a colorful history, starting with its acquisition as part of the Equinox deal and followed by years of operational disappointments. What the Africa and Middle East team has done with this asset is quite remarkable and summarized on this slide. Through diligent operational stewardship focused on people, efficiencies, cost discipline, and sound geological and grade control practices, this mine now boasts a long life and significant future cash flow generation potential. Over the space of just two years, production has increased by 23%, costs have been reduced by 25%, and at around $3.50 copper price, which is a little below where it is today, the mine could produce in excess of $250 million in free cash flow per annum for many years to come. A real testimony to the Barrick operating philosophy.
The new Barrick's foundational objective was to build a business capable of delivering the industry's best returns. Two years on, we've made considerable progress towards that goal. The dividend has tripled, cash flows have increased to record level, and a once crippling debt burden has been lifted. These achievements were produced on the foundation of a great asset base, a fit-for-purpose corporate structure, a lean and agile leadership who have more than lived up to our best people mantra. We've had our fair of challenges, of course, and then some, but we've overcome them. We've found or created new opportunities to support our sustainable profitability strategy, and we're more than ready to exploit the openings that will be offered by the dynamics of the gold industry. And finally, as is customary, how is the look back on our performance since the merger?
While I firmly believe there's significant value left in our share price before any further improvements or growth prospects, we have already demonstrated clear outperformance. As can be seen from this chart, Barrick's share price has outperformed for the past 30 months. A shareholder in either Randgold or Barrick at the time of the merger would now be some 30% ahead of the GDX. Importantly, we are just at the beginning of an exciting and value-creating journey. Thank you, everyone, for listening, and thank you for your attention. I've got a good spread of executives on the call to assist me any questions. We'd be happy to pass back to the operator and take questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question- and- answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star the two. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. Our first question comes from Josh Wolfson of RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Mark, I noticed there were a couple of headlines today on the topic of M&A and consolidation and the company sort of reiterating its interest in being part of those discussions, as well as some views on copper. Could you sort of, I guess, update us with what the views are, more specifically, I guess, in terms of Barrick's own copper portfolio? And then maybe how you look at these opportunities in the context of the market today with there being a pretty material difference in how copper prices have performed versus gold.
Hi, Josh. I think the best way for me to answer that question, which is pretty broad, is to take you back to 2008, '09, '10, and '11. We're in a very similar place today. It was a transformational period for Randgold Resources at that time, an increasing gold price. Notwithstanding that, we did do a very critical deal right in the middle of a big bull market, in acquiring Moto and ultimately led to the Kibali Mine of today. At the same time, we had a big capital program. We were building out on Tongon as well. And we used that opportunity not only to expand our business, but also to pay down our debt. You've seen the same focus this time around. We've brought the debt down. We have no net debt now.
We've started a dividend policy already before the gold price started moving. This has allowed us to return more to our shareholders as we did in 2009, '10. In fact, it started in 2008, a 13-year successive increase in the dividends we paid despite the ups and downs of the gold price. And Barrick is at that point. We have committed to returning about a 3.6% yield on the share price of a couple of days ago with the proposed $750 capital return that we shared with you today. At the same time, we're not putting the company into any sort of debt, a net debt. We've got lots of liquidity. We've built out our exploration teams in all three regions. Very solid leadership. I think we've demonstrated that our mineral resource management and our planning capabilities are now well-entrenched.
And our executive teams led by Catherine, Mark, and Willem certainly can all take on an extra asset or in the case of Latin and Asia Pacific, probably more than one, Mark would say. We're well-positioned. We've got the strongest balance sheet in the industry. It's still growing. And so, now it's about making sure that we deliver that value to our shareholders in a proper and considered basis. Again, the question I would ask is, in this bull market that we find and everyone's baying for more and more money to be returned to the shareholders, very few people investing in their own future. Everyone harvesting. And this is a cyclical business. We're up there near the top of the cycle. Managing this requires some conservatism and considered decisions.
We think that we've certainly experienced in this, we've got good memories, particularly Graham and I and the other executives in my team. Now, there are lots and lots, as you know, Josh, there are lots and lots of businesses, whether it's copper or gold, that just three years ago certainly were on the watch list, and suddenly there's no risk and stress anymore. With that comes opportunity. As you know, the discussions between Barrick and Randgold started in late 2015 and took some time to find a deal which really delivered real benefits for all the owners of both companies.
We are not, everyone, as you see in the market today, everyone, every time you wake up, there's a different opinion that's considered to be the only opinion on where the markets are gonna go and what's gonna happen to gold and where you should be putting your money. We, back in the great financial crisis as well. We believe that the short or near term to midterm outlook on global markets are not clear. We believe that the technical support for a stronger gold price is still very well embedded in the market. We certainly haven't seen the consequence of this unprecedented quantitative easing that we've witnessed in the last nine months. Orders of magnitude of what we saw over the five-year plan. That's first of all, the way we frame our business. Now you look at how you grow.
The best way to grow in times like this, of course, is organically. One of the things that I hope I shared with you through this presentation is every single core asset in Barrick has real upside that you can demonstrate. Both, and in particular, most of them new discoveries, as well as brownfields extensions. That's the core component of our business, and of course, there are, and going to be further consolidation opportunities. And we believe that the challenge of doing those transactions is going to not only be commercial, but also the ability to be able to deliver a more aligned, more modern comfort to the owners, the long-term owners of these companies. Again, I started out with the sharing of our ESG strategy, which I believe that ultimately is gonna become a key driver in one's ability to transact going forward.
Having- sorry, that's gold side, and that's our core business. On the copper side, again, we've demonstrated that we're capable of managing and delivering real value in the copper space. Lumwana has got a long history of poor performance. We've been able to rebuild it and position it. We've always said our focus on copper is first prize, the copper comes with gold and younger gold copper geological terrains. Secondly, that we would pursue copper assets where they are located in countries where we have and can demonstrate a competitive advantage over the traditional copper miners. And we believe that sort of Central African copper provinces offers that opportunity for us. At the same time, down in South America, there's lots of copper potential that comes with gold in the gold copper porphyries.
Our exploration teams out into the Asia-Pacific are also pursuing opportunities where, again, that geological association is clear. So we're not, you know, I think the market responds as though just because we talk about growth and we talk about the importance and significance for Barrick to remain relevant in the industry, it needs to broaden into copper as being that we're gonna sort of go out there and just buy the first copper asset or company, regardless of the opportunity to deliver value to both the target owners as well as our own. We're not gonna do that. You've walked this path with me for a long time, Josh. We've got too many checks and balances in my executive team to go out there and do something stupid. Watch this space. Give us time. We'll keep building our business in a considered way.
Good. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Mike Parkin of National Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. One I had was, we're seeing quite a cold snap come down through the U.S., and I was wondering if there's been any negative impact to the Nevada Gold Mines operations due to that cold, or is it anything that you would expect to maybe drive a bit of a soft Q1 or something that would probably bounce back with the resumption of kind of normal temperatures?
Mike, I would just say that where our operations are located in Nevada, it's flipping cold this time of year, regardless of whether there are cold snaps. We don't notice the cold snap. It's just cold. We look forward to the odd sunny day. It's a bit like West Africa when you have three months of rain where you get one meter dumped on you. We don't see it appropriate to use weather to explain why we can't run our mines. Our team's well-equipped to manage weather in northern Nevada, just like we are in the Andes in South America. You definitely won't see anyone using it as an excuse. Not in Barrick.
One last question on COVID. Do you see any potential to implement a company kind of sponsored vaccine clinic to get vaccines to your employees at a faster rate than government programs? Or are you looking at it to just leave it with the governments of your respective host countries and go that route?
Well, what we've been able to do is partner with our host countries and, in the case of Nevada, our host state, on combating COVID and its impact. Bar two operations, we now have COVID partnership-led PCR laboratories which support our protocols and that we can turn around accurate tests in a couple of hours. And that's been very helpful. We've got two more to really roll out on a laboratory in Tanzania, which we're working on, and one in Zambia. We've just put one into Hemlo as well. Into the town of Marathon. And again, in all our countries, we are very much part of the COVID task force. Our senior executives have now been included in the vaccine logistics and sort of management structures in our various regions and host counties or provinces.
Catherine is very much part of that initiative in Canada as well as in Nevada, as is Greg in the immediate part of the Elko-Winnemucca region in Northern Nevada. And in Africa, we're part of the whole African Union initiative to source and support the rollout of vaccines. It's a little more complicated there. There's been some movement recently, and we've seen the first Johnson & Johnson vaccines coming into South Africa, and we look forward to be able to manage that across the nations, across the countries in which we operate in Africa. South America, we were early partners with the Dominican Republic in setting up structures to purchase and order vaccines and get them into the country.
We've got a very strong relationship, worked extremely well as one of our most responsive COVID initiatives has been the, as you know, Dominican Republic is being a holiday destination, got hit very hard in the early days of COVID. And then, we are working again with the Argentinian government on sourcing vaccines. Again, all the emerging and developing worlds are slightly behind the developed economies as far as rolling out that vaccine. It's absolutely critical for the world to manage a global solution on the vaccine rollout, we are part of it. At this stage, it is not possible for private enterprises to purchase vaccines themselves. But we are partnering with our host countries. And already, for instance, in Nevada, we're talking about rolling out some of the vaccines to the critical support staff within the mining industry as well as other industries.
It's a very collaborative initiative, and it's been an impressive partnership across all 13 of our host countries. And I'm optimistic about bringing this pandemic under control in the medium term. It's definitely not gonna happen as quickly as everyone would have liked. It's very important we all continue to exercise discipline and respect the protocols of social distancing, et cetera, until such time as we get a herd immunity entrenched in our populations.
Thanks, Mark, and all the best on the negotiations with Porgera.
Thanks, Mike.
Our next question comes from Danielle Chigumira of Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Great. Thank you. My first question is on your climate targets. They seem significantly more ambitious than those set at the Investor Day. And so, could you give us any color on specific projects or specific actions that you're planning which will lead to those higher reductions in greenhouse gases?
Sure. So, Danielle, we are ambitious. I mean, we are very clear that our target is to achieve a 30% reduction by 2030. And you know, I think the net zero target down in 2030 is a bit academic at the moment because I don't think its- well, I know there's no gold mining company that goes to 2050 in the current plans. Important is that we, I and my team, my large team now, have always been absolutely clear that we manage our business on tangible plans. There's a target. Everyone's been under pressure to accept that they're targeting X, Y, and Z. That doesn't mean anything if you don't have a real plan against which you can measure yourself. We started out with a plan to deliver a 10% reduction last year, last year in our 2019 sustainability report. We've now increased that to 15% reduction.
We've got a serious plan. Every single one of our operations has got a very specific greenhouse gas strategy, whether it's Veladero where we're rolling out the connection to the Chilean power grid, which is the, has more sustainable power component to it than any other power utility [audio distortion]. That really does take away significant emissions and also drops our costs materially in Veladero. In Dominican Republic, we are the leader in that country with the conversion from heavy fuel to natural gas, driving big turbines, very efficient, very low emissions, and not only for our PV, but also for the nation. In Nevada, we bought, with the joint venture, the Newmont coal power station. We're already well down the road on converting that to natural gas. And also we are busy permitting a 200 MW solar power station, which will be linked to that natural gas power facility.
And we've got a second one as well. In Kibali, which is our youngest mine in the group, that we built on the back of hydropower installations, and recently, as I mentioned in my speech, we've added a big battery to that, and we've learned so much about how to form a grid, a mini grid, in a remote place like the jungle in DRC. That battery technology has proved to be invaluable, and we're now looking at changing around the whole construction of our grid and using the battery to form the grid and the hydropower to actually keep the batteries charged. Kibali is unique in that it's got a big hoist, and it's constantly drawing large amounts of power from the grid.
What we've learned there, we just commissioned a 20 MW solar power station in Morila, in western Mali, and we know that there's an opportunity to install similar battery technology in, sorry, not Morila, in Loulo-Gounkoto, and be able to firm the grid and use the solar to keep those batteries powered, and therefore do away with a lot more of the diesel and heavy fuel-powered component of our power station there. The opportunities in, Porgera has natural gas power, and there's more and more opportunities now as people start investing in hydro in Papua New Guinea, which has got some very exciting potential sites for hydro power, particularly up in the Highlands.
When you walk through our portfolio, I've just given you a quick brush. Of course, you can't just say, "I'm gonna reduce power." You've got to be able to plan to do it. One of the things that Barrick is investing in is that technology to ensure that the next new mine we build has even more efficiency built into it as far as generation goes compared to, for instance, Kibali. We're learning every day, and I believe that if we continue with that focus, and every single general manager, senior executive in Barrick is an owner of this commitment to our stakeholders. Hope that answers your question.
I think that's very useful color. Thank you. Just one more from me. On Tanzania, you talk about making North Mara possibly a Tier One mine, I'm trying to conceptualize how that happens. Is it the case that some of the geological upside results in a different way of operating those mines, like in a broader complex? How should I be thinking about that?
The 300,000 oz out of North Mara and more than about 250,000 oz out of Bulyanhulu, add them together, that's 550,000 oz. North Mara is a moderate-grade mine. Buly is a high-grade mine. We drive the cost down to the bottom half of the cost curve, and you've got a Tier One complex. They are combined in the country, and they both have more than 10 years life, substantially more than 10 years life. That's really our focus and what's left. North Mara's got a bit of a way to get to that low end of the cost curve, but we'll get it there because it's got so much upside. We've still got to lift the production. Buly is helped significantly by the grade of that ore body.
Great. That's useful. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Michael Jalonen of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi, Mark. I hope all is well, and you're not facing a cold snap in Port Moresby. I have a question on Hemlo, ensuring by the steady state 1.9 million tonnes per annum production. How much tonnes will come from each of the mining fronts to get to that production level? What will that mean to the mine production? Thanks.
Right now, Mike, how's it been? No chance of a cold snap here in Port Moresby, I can assure you. Buckets of water, yes. About the coldest you get is when you turn the air conditioner down to about 16 centigrade. The Hemlo outlook this year is about 210,000 oz. The plan is to get it up to about 250,000 oz from underground. And that's why we need that extra access in the upper C-Z one, which we're developing now. You can do the math, just work it back, you know. It's really, it's a two, I mean, our first prize would be to get it up to 250,000 oz. As we improve the infrastructure, the hoisting, the ventilation, one of the big challenges is getting a lot of the waste out of the mine to improve our logistics and ore movement. Right now, all that is constraining.
We've still got to develop more long-haul open scope opportunities. We got to improve our backfill. We've still got quite a bit of remnant mining that we're doing in this next year and perhaps the year following to 2022. At the same time, we're drilling and building that reserve base to support a + 10 year, plus 250,000 oz producer, which makes it a substantial Canadian gold mine.
Okay. Well, thank you. Good luck there.
You know that mine well, don't you, Mike?
Oh, saw it in 1980. No, 1988 with Corona.
That's it, you know. And it's still got legs.
Yes, it does.
Our next question comes from Anita Soni of CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.
Good morning. My question is with regards to reserve replacement. I saw some strong reserve replacement at pretty good grades, but I'm gonna ask you about the areas that lagged a little bit, particularly at Nevada Gold Mines. You guys had mentioned that it's gonna take a few years to fully see the results to get it up to where you are in Africa in terms of reserve replacement. Can you give us a little bit of color on the plan forward in the next year or two in terms of getting those grades and those ounces back up?
Yeah. So, Anita, just trying to explain, I'm not sure about what you're talking about there, because if you look at North America, we went from 31 million oz in 2019, this is reserves now at 2.68 grams a ton, to 29 million oz at 2.8 grams a ton. If you look at Africa, of course, we've grown certainly on the back of the Loulo, Gounkoto, and Kibali, and North Mara replacements. Tongon is a tougher nut to crack because it is in decline. At Bulyanhulu, the big growth will come as we complete the underground feasibility study. North America is in good shape. You know, it's, first of all, you've got to build a resource profile, and we're very disciplined on the grade. And we've done that, and hopefully, Anita, you would have seen in my presentation me pointing to further resource expansion.
You've got to build that front ahead of the mining phases in inventory first, then, and then third, ultimately it gets into measured and indicated, which results in reserve. It's gonna take some time, but 76% replacement right now with more than 100% replacement on the resource category bodes well for us to get all our assets delivering reserve replacement over time. And I'll just take you through it. As I pointed out, PV is a simple case of significant reserve growth. Veladero, we didn't get the drilling done we wanted to in 2020 because of the restrictions of COVID. A lot of that drilling has been rolled over to this year. And again, we expect to make significant progress in the Cuarteles, the Cuarteles expansion of the current Veladero pit. Then we pointed to North Leeville, some significant upside potential.
Rita K, we're busy drilling out. We've got the lower part of Rita K now coming into the mine plan and reserve conversion. The upper part, we're still dealing with the water table and making sure that it's accessible, which means you can bank it. REN, we've got some into our mine plan and reserves, but still quite a lot more outstanding. There's still work to do in both Turquoise Ridge underground as well as Twin Creeks. Cortez, as we develop and deliver on the feasibility study for Goldrush, you'll see some significant ounces flowing into that complex. Yeah, I'm really very comfortable about where we are as far as understanding our geology and being able to, when I go to the mines now, just like I go get in Kibali and Loulo, the MRM team have a plan to convert.
It's part of our business. And we even added ounces in Porgera just before it was closed, and that's got some significant upside. That's what comes with Tier One assets. I hope that gives you some comfort. The most important thing is that the quality of our resource/reserve is still intact, and we haven't allowed anything to deteriorate on the back of a higher gold price. We've kept the 1,200 discipline.
Yeah. No, I did notice the grades were maintained or if not improved at most of the assets. I was just drilling into some of the Long Canyon, Phoenix, Carlin, and Turquoise that didn't quite keep pace with the rest of the assets. Thanks for explanation.
Okay. If you're worried about Long Canyon, remember we've stalled Long Canyon as we retouched our permitting. That's looking for the second phase expansion of the life of mine, and that would also impact our reserves. At the moment, we don't have a permit, so it's not coming into the reserve part of Long Canyon.
Okay. And then my second and final question, I guess, is a long one. You've talked about industry consolidation in the gold space, and I just wanted to understand what exactly it is that catches your eye so much with the assets that are out there, and if you could give us some parameters on what exactly you're looking for and how that competes with your internal projects.
Okay. I guess the best way is to wind back everything to 2017, early 2018. You and your portfolio of companies you're covering, a lot of them were very stressed. Suddenly everything is utopic with a higher gold price. That doesn't change the long-term profitability of our industry. We've got a couple of single-asset companies that have struggled to deliver against their feasibility study, but been kept alive by the higher gold price. Our industry is right now in a place where it's not worried about its future. I point this to both the fund managers who are demanding cash returns, not worrying about how you use this higher gold price to repackage our industry, which is required to create a relevant industry as allocation of capital becomes more, sort of larger and more, more clumsy, going forward.
Because the funds are just getting bigger and bigger, and they need the dial to be moved more. At the same time, we've got management teams that are just hanging on to this opportunity using the COVID and the higher gold price to prevent the conversation around consolidation. I bet it's not gonna be like that forever. We've seen the market respond on a softening gold price, albeit that it's way above the sort of average. And that's why it's important for Barrick to have the strength, financial and management bench strength, to be able to force some of these opportunities. On the criteria, we've been very clear. We look at two categories of opportunities. Tier One, which is plus 500,000 oz at the bottom half of the cost curve or within the bottom half of the cost curve.
And Tier Two, which is sort of above 250,000 oz at the bottom half of the cost curve. Both having at least 10-year life of mine potential. And in times like this, as I touched on in my presentation, is Moto acquisition we made in 2009 in the middle of the crisis, a very solid, well-structured bull market in the gold price. We did that acquisition. It was a world-class acquisition. We read it right, and it has delivered enormous value to our business. You know, the key now is not to buy and I would- it's a conversation that should be had because just sucking money out of the gold industry doesn't do anyone any favors. This industry is, was very precarious in 2017, early 2018. It hasn't changed. It's just you can't see it because of the higher margins.
I think it's important that we- and that's why I keep bashing that drum, or beating that drum. That I think we need to do it. Notwithstanding that, as you've seen, Barrick has rarely invested in its organic opportunities, both brown and greenfields, and we'll continue to do that as well.
Okay. Thank you. Wanted to close out by congratulating you on your cost control. That's a pretty good result considering the past year and the year going forward. Thank you.
Thank you, and I appreciate that coming from you.
Our next question comes from Matthew Murphy of Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Just wondering if you're still expecting to formalize a dividend payout policy this year? I thought it might have come with this quarter. Is it something that you're looking to do early this year?
Matt, yeah. I think it's important, I did touch on this in another answer, is that, you know a lot of debate at the Board and amongst our executive team on how we manage this. Again, if you wind back to 2008, then 2009, and 2010, the way we managed that return of capital to shareholders and our dividend strategy, very similar this time around. We have no visibility of how the short to medium term economy or our market looks like. I think we definitely, I mean realize non-core assets. We believe it's important to return, makes logical sense to return that part of that to our shareholders, which I've always done my whole career. We've used the cash generated by our business to bring down our net debt and cover ourselves, so that we are completely independent of the capital markets and are able to run our business without interference.
That's done, and I'm very happy with that. We will continue to build the cash portion of our balance sheet through this year if the gold price stays above $ 1,700. We believe that this whole unprecedented scenario is unclear and extremely dynamic, and I'm pretty confident to be able to bet you that the current analyst outlook on what it's gonna look like in 12 months time is all wrong. Our board, and in debate with our management team, have landed on the fact that it's better to return this. It's a significant return added to our $0.09 a quarter, delivers about a 3.6% yield at current gold share prices, actually a bit higher than today. Then we'll reassess things next year, where I'm sure things will be a lot clearer to everyone.
Okay. Thank you.
There are no more questions from the conference call.
Thank you very much for making the time today. Been very pleased that we got through this presentation. A lot of people put enormous amount of effort into the communications, and everyone was really concerned that we might break our communication through this process. Thanks to everyone that put effort in. Again, thank you for making the time to join us, and we'll speak to you soon.
This concludes today's conference call. Should you have additional questions, please contact the Barrick Investor Relations department. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.