Welcome to the Barrick 2021 third quarter results conference call. During the presentation, all participants on the phone are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded and a replay will be available on Barrick's website later today, November 4, 2021. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mark Bristow, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. I must say, it's a very good morning to all of you here. Or maybe it's good afternoon. Sorry, welcome to the LSE again. It's so nice to be here. It's almost a little bit plumper and maybe a little bit wider for some people, but good to see you, and thank you for coming to share this time with us. Good afternoon to those further east of here and a very good morning to our friends and colleagues back in the States. I welcome you all to Barrick's quarter three results presentation.
As we know, the world has been living with COVID for a year and a half now, and even though the vaccination fightback has had some success, the pandemic continues to impact our lives and our businesses, most recently through the current supply chain crisis. At the same time, the mining industry has also had to accommodate the primacy of ESG as an investment criteria while struggling to meet performance focused on the next quarter. Perhaps not surprisingly, many companies, including some industry leaders, are making promises that seem to be based on wishful thinking. A technology still to be invented, ounces yet to be discovered, the hope that the next generation of managers will find solutions before the delivery deadlines dawn.
Barrick, on the other hand, has always been a contrarian, and as I will show you today, the promises we make are anchored in and guided by commercially and scientifically achievable plans. Please take note of our cautionary statement, and for those who would like to study it in more detail, it is available on our website. Prominent among those plans is our carefully considered and rigorously implemented sustainability strategy, embedded in every part of our business as a function which is not solely a corporate responsibility, but it has to be owned at the site level. Central to that strategy is our concept of partnership. This is no new thing. Barrick has always known that to be sustainable, it must be trusted and valued and a long-term partner to its wide range of stakeholders, notably its host countries and communities.
Our investment in these partnerships take many forms. In addition to the community development programs at all our mines, we build the skills and capacity of our host country workers and vendors to multiply our positive impact on local, regional, and national economies. Our policy of prioritizing local recruitment has produced workforces dominated by host country nationals, including, and probably more importantly, at the leadership level. Last year, $4.5 billion , 75% of our total procurement spend, was invested on goods and services from local suppliers. We engage at the local level with our community stakeholders in an open and transparent manner to discuss the mine's risks and opportunities and resolve problems. The world has come a long way from the days when a corporation's only responsibilities were to make a profit, pay tax, and obey the law.
Barrick creates real value for its partners, not only through the economic benefits it shares, but also through its conscientious care of their environment. Our employees, by the very nature of the way we do business, are also stakeholders in our business, and their well-being is a prime concern. Although our safety trend has improved steadily since the merger, we experienced two fatalities during the past quarter. One I spoke to you about last quarter and one that happened subsequent to that. We held a group-wide workshop to analyze the causes of these unfortunate and tragic events, and to develop actions to prevent a repetition of such events. As far as COVID-19 is concerned, we continue to manage it with limited impact on our operations so far. The priority now is to get all our people vaccinated.
To date, 35% of our employees have been fully vaccinated, while an additional 13% have had their first jab. The LATAM region is leading the vaccination drive across the group with 67% fully vaccinated. Even with the delay from COVAX, from the COVAX program, the AME vaccination rates are progressing well. However, back in the United States, Nevada Gold Mines is lacking with only 32% either partially or fully vaccinated. We believe that this event is primarily due to vaccine hesitancy, and our team continues to sensitize our employees to the safety of the vaccine. On the environmental front, there were no class one incidents during the quarter. Our water management strategy to minimize fresh and maximize recycled water consumption has delivered an increase in the recycling and reuse rate to 83% from 78% percent in 2020.
We are on track to achieve or even beat the target of 80% we have set for water efficiency across the group for 2021. Also, during the quarter, an independent human rights assessment and training program was completed at Pueblo Viejo and Loulo-Gounkoto, and it's now being rolled out at the other operations across the group. We have also set 30% GHG emission reduction targets for 2030. One thing that separates us from others, as I pointed out in my introduction, is we have this roadmap which shows how we intend to get there. It's important to note that this is based on projects that have been either implemented or are under construction and does not require a change in our production profile.
To date, we have a clear roadmap, as illustrated here, to a 25% emission reduction, and we're confident that we'll at least deal with the other 5% remaining well before 2030. The sort of things that you won't see on ours is our Sandvik joint venture, for instance, on our underground equipment. A lot of equipment-related reductions because we're still in the process of developing that technology to ensure that we can deliver against our plans. A question that was asked to me earlier today was, "How much is this gonna cost?" The critical answer from our point of view is this all comes with better efficiencies and lower operating costs. It's a genuine investment, not only in the future, in a responsible future, but also in a better business for Barrick.
Operationally, it was another solid quarter despite some challenges, and it was also very busy, as you can see from the long list of KPIs on this slide. The African and Middle East and Latin America regions are both trending towards the top end of their guidance, while Nevada posted a strong quarter-on-quarter improvement, albeit trending towards the bottom end of guidance. Altogether, Barrick is well-placed to achieve its annual production guidance. It was also a good quarter for our exploration teams, as I'll show you later. More than two years into the merger, we're now pretty much where we wanted to be, with a strong foundation of world-class mines and a robust pipeline of quality projects and prospects.
Notable features of the operating results are the well-contained costs, the ramp-ups at Veladero and Bulyanhulu, Nevada Gold Mines' effective management of the fallout from the failure of the Goldstrike mill, and the significant contribution from our copper operations. All in all, we're set for what should be a strong finish for this year. The financial results show a robust free cash flow, which continues to support an already very strong balance sheet, as well as the exploitation of growth opportunities. It's worth noting that the final tranche of the $750 million return of capital to shareholders, combined with our sustainable quarterly dividend of $0.09 per share, represents a record total cash return to shareholders of $1.4 billion during 2021 for Barrick. In other words, Barrick has never returned more to its shareholders than that amount in a single year.
We turn now to operations, starting in North America, where Nevada had a slower first half of the year, as we explained on the back of our decision to bring forward the major planned shutdowns into that period. However, despite the failure of the Goldstrike mill, which repairs were completed at the end of quarter three, it clawed back some production with a stronger quarter-on-quarter performance in quarter three, which is a real tribute to the expertise and ability of the Nevada Gold Mines management. Hemlo in Canada was negatively impacted by COVID-19, as I'll explain to you later. Up in Alaska, the Donlin Project continues to make encouraging progress.
In Nevada, we're showing growth across all our complete core district, with our exploration teams succeeding in their drive to reinforce and extend the current life of mines plans by finding additional ounces while also hunting for new standalone discoveries. Carlin boosted production and lowered costs, despite, as I said earlier, the downtime on the Goldstrike roaster on the back of the improved throughput. While the one Goldstrike mill was down, as we explained last quarter, Carlin focused on processing ore with higher carbonaceous content. You know that often we're constrained because we have to blend. We took that higher carbon content ore with higher grade, and because we had a longer residence time on the lower throughput, we were able to process it with better recoveries.
We've stockpiled, on the other hand, the high-grade ore with lower carbon content, and it's that ore that we're now processing through the plant. It's that ore that's gonna drive the significant improvement in production for quarter four. A very efficient way of handling what was an unprecedented failure in one of our big SAG mills. North Level is on track to deliver its maiden resource by the end of the year. This is one significant benefit of the merger of the assets between Barrick and Newmont. The past quarter delivered a world-class intercept. In fact, it's the best intercept made in Carlin to date. The definition of a very high-grade zone within an area of continuous mineralization, which is open in all directions. Follow-up drilling is now underway, with an additional step out scheduled for early next year.
This is part of a bigger upside potential of the greater Leeville complex, which continues to be highlighted with our ongoing work around the footprints of Leeville and Turf. The potential in this greater Leeville area stands at approximately 25 million tons at 7 g-12 g , with more to come as a very large resource and reserve definition drilling program continues to expand the existing footprint in all directions. Staying in the Carlin complex, underground resource drilling at Ren has confirmed our model and a significant upside potential on the western side of the deposit next to the infrastructure. I must say, this was an exciting time for our exploration team. We had this big development into Ren called the Road to Ren, and at some stage, some of the people were suggesting maybe it was a road to nowhere.
With the latest results, we're super excited. Again, we expect this project to also report a maiden resource by the end of the year. While we work on the technical aspects of the opportunity, in other words, it is very close to infrastructure and has real potential to add to the profile of the Carlin life of mine plan in the short term. After the quarter, NGM completed, as you would have seen, the South Arturo-Lone Tree asset swap, which streamlined its portfolio and secured the 40% of South Arturo that it did not already own. Recent drilling has identified a new ore-controlling structure that could again extend this mine life of this asset. Turning to Cortez. Last quarter, Cortez was also impacted by the Goldstrike mill failure.
Like Carlin, management mitigated this by prioritizing the processing of underground oxide ore at the oxide mill and stepping up our heap leach production from the open pit, and in the end, succeeded in boosting production by nearly 20% over the previous quarter. The resumption of the processing through the Goldstrike mill and a continuing increase in heap leach production has set Cortez up for a strong finish to the year as well. At Cortez Hill Underground, testing of the Hanson and Voodoo fault targets below the mine has also proved to be successful, opening up the area for expansion, both along strike and down dip.
Then over at the Goldrush project, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management finally published a notice of intent in August, and following the completion of the public scoping exercise, a draft environmental impact statement is being prepared for publication in January next year. The feasibility study showed, as we expected, that the project covered by the plan of operations and the EIS comfortably passes Barrick's investment filters. We have fed the first metallurgical batch sample through our Goldstrike roaster and results were as predicted and are thus on track to increase the underground reserves with our year-end reserve resource update. This is obviously going to be a very valuable addition to the Cortez complex, and one that offers further upside and which will support Cortez's tier one status well into the future.
We continue to explore options for linking Goldrush and the nearby Fourm ile through underground access. Fourm ile is not part of the Nevada Gold Mines, and for the time being, is still owned by Barrick. At present, conceptually, we envisage completing the feasibility by developing across the Nevada Gold Mines Barrick border in 2024, 2025. First potential mining of Fourm ile ore is scheduled towards the end of our ten-year plan. Turquoise Ridge is another of the tier one mines in NGM, but the luxury of its high grades and low cost covered up a multitude of sins in the past, and bringing it up to our standards has been a big job. It's been a job which required a geological, operational, and cultural transformation.
It's been improving steadily since our intervention and is going to be a real value driver for NGM in the medium term. The commissioning of its number three shaft, scheduled for late 2022, will be a game changer by increasing the underground mine's hoisting capacity and reducing haulage distances together with significantly improved ventilation. We've been, as I mentioned earlier, trialing four electric trucks at Turquoise Ridge, and they're always great when they work, but we haven't achieved the availability that we need yet. This is an important aspect of what the mining industry faces. We have a partnership with Sandvik, and TR, despite its ramp-up drive, is also essentially an R&D laboratory. Our commitment to Sandvik and likewise to Sandvik to us is really we need to persevere with this work.
As I said, when these trucks work, they are amazing. There's lots of little things that we can improve on. At the same time, as part of the commitment, Sandvik has supplied us with additional conventional trucks so that we can keep going with this experiment, and we look forward to the time when we have. We've got five of them, so it's a very significant commitment, both from NGM and Barrick, as well as from the Sandvik Corporation. In the meantime, exploration has revealed significant potential in the gap between Turquoise Ridge and Twin Creeks, and we've now identified some very high, two in fact, high-priority targets for testing this quarter. I personally am very excited that our prediction that this could prove to be one of the most prospective ground positions in Barrick's portfolio looks to be on the mark.
Let's watch this space. These are NGM's two smaller mines. Phoenix is a low-cost producer and a solid performer with a 10-year life of mine. As it's shown again this quarter, it's a very consistent deliverer of values. It's also a copper and gold business. We're currently looking back at the tailings dam because it does contain some other strategic metals. Long Canyon, on the other hand, is a very high-margin operator. It has been for a while, but it's got limited life opportunities, and we don't see it as a long-term asset within NGM. We'll be reviewing and making a decision about its future early in the new year.
We move now to Canada and Hemlo, where the operation was significantly impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, which slowed down the ramp-up of underground development. As you recall, we made a decision to bring in an Australian underground contractor to help us transition the mining, sort of old-style mining strategy into a more modern, focused mining exercise, as we have across the Barrick Group, and in particular, as we've proved to be world-class in our African operations. With a combination of the Canadian restrictions and the very draconian approach to COVID by the Australians, we couldn't get the people in a proper way, and so it really caught us. We're now starting to get that right, but we've lost an opportunity because as you know, we had closed down the open pit. We are moving to underground.
While we're back on track, it's gonna take us some time, as much as 18 months, to really get us back and pick up this momentum. Hemlo, for us, is significant, what we define as a strategic investment. Two things. As you know, I'm very bullish on the Canadian market, and Barrick is underinvested in it. Secondly, we need to develop an expertise to manage operations in Canada. The one area where Hemlo has delivered is in confirming its resource growth potential. Infill drilling, as you see here on the eastern zone, is on track to add a new mining area, with exploration also focusing on the western limits of the deposit to expand the ore body.
Further to the east, on the other side of the old David Bell Mine, we have also a focus for exploration. If we can deliver what we think there is there, we have no doubt that it would lead to a significant transformation of Hemlo. Just those who don't know Hemlo, it's sort of lived in spite of what it did because of the very high grade of the ore body. We found just focusing in on all the information and consolidating it has pointed us into some directions that we think could deliver some significant additional resources. Also, as I touched on earlier, and I've said many times before, I believe that Barrick is underinvested in Canada, which is our home country, as well as a mining-friendly jurisdiction.
Our exploration and new business teams are looking for opportunities to add or consolidate ground in one or more of the very prospective Canadian gold belts. Then over to Alaska and to Donlin Gold, which is one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in the world, with a reserve potential of well over 30 million ounces within one single large open pit. Drilling this year is focused on understanding the geology, and we aim to update our geological, geotechnical, and resource models during the first half of 2022. Currently, the open pit models are still data constrained, and the Donlin board has now approved on the back of the recent work, funding for additional drilling and study work into 2022, to prepare for further advancement of the project up the value curve.
Staying in Americas, but moving to Latin America, which is a region full of opportunities, but as you would have appreciated over the last few months, also some really significant challenges. We've made a number of solid strategic and investment decisions to maximize the former and minimize the latter. The ramp-up of the new leach pad has driven up production at Veladero, and the planned expansion of Pueblo Viejo will extend this tier one mine's life into the 2040s and beyond. We expect to convert around 9 million ounces of measured and indicated resource to the mine's proven and probable reserve on the permitting of the new tailings facility. Then the sale of Lagunas Norte has enabled a further rationalization of our portfolio in this region, and again, realized value and removed some significant liabilities from a non-core asset.
These are the Pueblo Viejo operating results, which confirm that its 2021 production is trending well within guidance and costs towards the bottom of guidance. Construction of the processing plant expansion is progressing, and completion is expected by the end of 2022. Although there has been, as I indicated in my introduction, some impact on the delivery schedule because of COVID-related issues. The mine is also negotiating additional tailings capacity permitting with the government and local stakeholders. The Dominican government and Pueblo Viejo have agreed on a government-led independent strategic environmental assessment of Pueblo Viejo's mine life extension project. The terms of reference for the assessment have already been published by the government, and the 10 firms that have been invited have submitted their proposals, and we expect the selection of the successful bidder this week or next week.
The updating of the PV district geological model earlier this year has also led to the definition of a series of structural corridors which have extended the potential between Zambrano, which is a very significant exploration target, and a new area called Arroyo del Rey. We have started drilling on those new targets, and we expect to start getting results when we speak to you early next year. As I noted earlier, Veladero had a good quarter on the back of the new Phase 6 heap leach facility, which we commissioned in quarter two. The work has already started on Phase 7 expansion, which will further support its build back to its historical production levels. You would remember the objective of this is to reestablish a new infrastructure for the next 10-year life of Veladero.
As you will recall, Veladero's connection to Chile's national power grid was delayed by COVID-19 restrictions, and construction has now finally been completed, and commissioning is expected in quarter four. This cheaper, cleaner energy source is expected, as you would have seen on the roadmap slide, to reduce Veladero's greenhouse gas emissions by around 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year. Veladero is also scheduled to beat its guidance for 2021, which is a significant achievement when you consider the multitude of challenges we had as COVID was first impacted Argentina and the response by the Argentine government coinciding with the start of winter in Argentina. Again, a great tribute to the management, our Argentine management. The Pascua-Lama project straddles the border between Argentina and Chile, with Lama on the Argentine side between Veladero and Pascua.
This project owns a partially built plant and infrastructure facility, which, when complete, should be able to process a wide range of ore types. Pascua-Lama and its many geological targets and resource options is currently being reviewed from top to bottom, and we plan to be ready with a way forward at the back end of 2024. The project faces significant technical and environmental challenges, as I'm sure you would have picked up in the press. Again, it has the potential for world-class status, and we have options of how we can bring it to account. While we continue to focus, and this will remain the case out to 2024, our exploration on the San Juan province and the Veladero Pascua-Lama district.
In addition to searching for more satellites for Veladero, we have also branched out across the El Indio Belt of Chile and Argentina in our search for other world-class opportunities. We also recently extended our South American footprint to Guyana, where we recently secured 63,000 hectares of prospective ground on a fertile structural corridor within the Kurupung Basin. A geological and geochemical screening program is currently in progress. The Kurupung Basin, for those who don't know it, is a well-known geological trend, and it is very similar in geology to that of West Africa, where, as you all know, we've been exploring successfully for many years. It's fair and square in our comfort zone. As you would have seen from all the press, and I think there's a lot of it, so I'm not gonna repeat it all today.
We continue to work hard to reopen the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea, which, as you know, has been on care and maintenance since April 2020, when the government declined to renew its special mining lease. The biggest focus now is to settle on a sound SML, sound special mining lease. That's a combined commitment, both from the government and from BNL, which is a partnership between Zijin and Barrick, which Barrick leads. We're all clear that we have to do it. It's a complicated process because, as you know, Papua New Guinea's mining code has a big focus on the inclusion of landowners in the process.
We're well down the road on the consultation process, and Barrick, as part of our proposal to the state, also had an agreement or has an agreement with the landowners, which supports that, the initiative of getting the mine back up and running. I think we've got to that stage where everyone is very clear that this economy needs, which was and used to be the biggest driver of the PNG economy. We're very focused on getting it back on track. As I explained in my introduction, our African and Middle East operations again proved their steady performer status and continued to deliver a strong cash flow stream to Barrick, as well as an abundance of new opportunities.
That was the logic behind the Barrick merger with Randgold, was we had a highly profitable portfolio, a very solid balance sheet full of cash, and Barrick had the world-class assets. The combination of those two, we would unlock, as you see we're doing now, the significant value embedded in the Barrick portfolio. In Mali, Loulo-Gounkoto is heading to the top end of its production guidance, and at the same time, it is maintaining its focus on efficient energy management with its planned expansion of its very successful solar power plant installation and its battery storage project, which we've dragged across from Kibali, where we've really made a lot of progress in managing our power storage capacity with battery technology.
We see this region as one of the world's most promising gold districts, and in a recent meeting with the country's Minister of Mines, he confirmed his commitment to Barrick as a partner. While I explained our interest in continuing to invest in exploration across western and southern Mali in our hunt for the next Loulo-Gounkoto mine. At Bambadji in eastern Senegal, KB West is emerging as a significant gold system with exciting potential to move forward to discovery status. High grades have been confirmed to a depth of 200 m and remain open at deeper levels and along both strike distances. We'll continue to evaluate this project and the other related satellite targets during the current field season, and we're right in the middle of that field season as we speak.
In Tongon, in Côte d'Ivoire, the mine produced a solid set of results for the quarter. Successful exploration and mineral resource management of the satellite pits at Tongon has extended its life by another year to 2024. A pipeline of new targets along the prospective Stabillo trend in proximity to the Tongon plant has been targeted for follow-up this quarter. At the Seydou North target on the same trend, we've outlined a new inferred resource and started step-out drilling down plunge to trace this high-grade shoot of mineralization, which opens at depth. We're also looking at multiple targets on the adjacent Bondialy permit, which could feed ore by truck to Tongon. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kibali is on track to deliver on its production guidance, and it continues to demonstrate significant upside potential.
The past quarter saw a big cost improvement thanks to higher grades and increased hydropower generation through the wet season. As I'm sure you all would like to ask on the cash, we continue to have constructive discussions with the government about releasing the money currently held in DRC. When I say that, it's held in our account in U.S. dollars. We now have agreements in principle on a way forward, including the approval to pay dividends. We now await the final approval on the repayment of loans. The point here is that we are very focused on doing this properly.
It was a situation that was caught up by the sudden move to pass a new mining code in 2018, and then the constipated political management system that followed until the recent appointment of a cabinet that was aligned with the leader, President Tshisekedi, and had the support of parliament. Since then, we've seen a new prime minister get appointed from the mining industry and a new governor of the Reserve Bank from the IMF. We're very comfortable with the quality and the commitment of the new management team. You would have seen they've been at the G20 and COP26.
There's been a big promotion, a re-promotion of the Congo mining industry and really promoting new investments, something that hasn't happened since the 2018 code was initially passed. We're very comfortable. Again, I've been like that the whole time. I'm comfortable we'll solve this problem. By the way, we do have all the legal documentation that gives us the right to repatriate. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, we have a lot of prospective land positions in and around Kibali. In the last two quarters, our geologists have really shifted the balance in our 10-year plan to a point where we have an equal amount of feed from open-pittable material along with the higher grade underground resources and reserves.
That's quite significant to keep that balance because it keeps the flexibility. Just to give you a background, you know, Kibali is an 800,000-ounce producer, so it's one of the biggest gold mines in the world. Brownfields exploration has also continued at Kibali, with the follow-up drilling underway at Kalimba, which is a new target. Again, as you see, this target is really starting to show continuity, both along strike and as well as down dip. Indications are that the grades could be sufficient to support both an extended open pit operation as well as support an underground one. In Tanzania, North Mara increased production on the back of higher grades, better recovery rates, and improved ore delivery from underground as we get this mine back on track.
We've redesigned the interface between the Gokona underground mine and open pit and achieved a better balance between the two ore sources. Both Gokona and Rama cutbacks are currently being evaluated and are on track to deliver robust extensions to the life of mine plan. The mine remains on track to achieve its production guidance. Bulyanhulu, one of our big success stories. Two years ago, as you'll recall, it was a rundown tailings retreatment operation. Today, thanks to a major turnaround effort by the regional team, which included reestablishing the shaft and rehabilitating the plant, it is a real underground mine again, ramping up to steady-state annual production of between 220,000 ounces and 260,000 ounces of gold from next year.
The latest geological model indicates that its mine life could potentially extend to 2040 and beyond. Bulyanhulu is getting ready for an updated reserve declaration, which again, like all the other major assets in Barrick, expect to show strong growth in excess of depletion. Another success story is the Lumwana copper mine in Zambia. While we still need to unplug some processing bottlenecks, it is capitalizing effectively on higher grades to boost throughput, and the fourth quarter is likely to be its best quarter ever. You would have also seen the recent announcement from the Zambian government on allowing us to deduct royalty costs for income tax purposes, which will be a material benefit to our cash flows out of Lumwana. We have also recently established a significant exploration team at Lumwana to probe multiple opportunities to extend its life.
A number of exciting targets, some with the potential for higher grades and better strip ratios, have already been defined, and we believe the mine has a good prospect of joining the premier league of African copper producers going forward. As for our other copper operations, Jabal Sayid in Saudi Arabia and Zaldívar in Chile are consistent performers that continue to make a valuable contribution to Barrick's bottom line. At Jabal Sayid, Lobe 1 and Lobe 4 eastern extensions have been added to the life of mine, and additional opportunities for near-mine growth have been identified. Zaldívar's Chloride Leach project remains within budget and on track for completion in the first half of next year.
In line with Barrick's strategy of expanding its global presence, we recently acquired four exploration blocks in Egypt, preparing the ground for exploration in a prospective but underexplored region of Africa. We have also now established a fieldwork team in the country and have started remote data collection and interpretation of the geology over the permits. As you know, Barrick has a single-minded purpose in the creation of value for all its stakeholders, and this bar chart shows our performance on this front since the merger. As you can see, we have succeeded by every measure, and we'll crown this year, as I noted earlier, with a record return to our shareholders. Even with that, we're still growing the significant strength of our balance sheet. I would suggest that's already history, and our focus, as always, is on the future.
Mining, as I never tire of reminding people, is a long-term business and its success demands sustainability. Hence, the constant search for and exploitation of new opportunities. At Barrick, we manage this process through our resource triangle. In this model, our exploration teams feed a frequently replenished stream of greenfields and brownfield targets into the base of the triangle. These are filtered through multiple evaluation layers with the ones that meet all our investment criteria, finally making it to the top of the triangle and a development stage. This is how our triangle looks at present, abundantly stocked and well-balanced at every stage of the game. I think it's important for me to stress at the end of a presentation like that our people are the driving force behind our track record of achievements.
Consequently, we see this as a key differentiator in our strategy and actively engage in all areas of our human resource plan at all levels within the business. We believe we provide a great place to work, where people are empowered as owners and are inspired to be the best that they can be. I end with a look at our five-year production profile, which, like all of our plans, is firmly rooted in reality. We've added our gold equivalent ounces in relation to our copper production in response to interest from investors. As normal, we will be updating the market with our detailed 2022 plans when we present our quarter four results in the new year.
With the industry's best asset base as our foundation, exceptional leadership at all levels, and the host of high-quality opportunities I have shown you, I believe Barrick is well-placed to achieve its vision of becoming the world's most valued gold company. With that, I thank you for your attention, and we will be happy to take any questions. I think Lois has instructed me that I need to start here. All right. Has somebody got a mic or are we-
Claudia has.
Oh, okay. Claudia will walk the mic to you. Just stick your hand up if you got a question. There we are, behind you, Claudia.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks very much indeed, Mark. Paul Gait from Azvalor. Just one question on the project pipeline. When you sort of look at sort of North America, it's quite conspicuous, you know, the number of projects that you've got there, where you've got reserve definition, but have not yet sort of moved into the pre-feasibility stage. It sort of goes from 12 down to three. I was just wondering, sort of what is it that sort of defines that quite sharp sort of step in the number of opportunities there, and what the potential could be to sort of get sort of that 12 number, sort of more, just to see more of those in that next category beyond. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Yeah. It's a very insightful question. Again, a large part of that's to do with Nevada and this strange relationship between Barrick and Newmont. I'm saying this as a complete outsider. I'm not taking sides here. You know, the boundaries, first of all, fences don't cut off ore bodies. You had a situation where Newmont had the sort of infrastructure endowment and a rapidly declining resource, and not a focus on the future. Barrick had high quality deposits, very high grade infrastructure that was in the wrong place to a degree, and focused on paying down debt. It was high-grading its assets. When we got there was very little information base to work on.
The first thing we had to do was first employ some geologists. Secondly, divide them in the skills to focus on the actual operation in the form of mineral resource management to support the planning, the geotech, the geohydrology, and extend the extensions of the ore bodies, because they were short. We remember we focused on the 10-year plan. We've done that now. We're now looking at 15 years. Once we started putting that together, we found a lot of opportunities. This Leeville opportunity, both Leeville North and Leeville, the Greater Leeville area, was an extension of part of the Carlin operations, the Newmont Carlin operations, where there had been a very wide-space drilling program, but not a lot of focus in to model it, the geology.
That's what we're showing you now as a 5 million-10 million ounce target in that area. That's taken us some time to drill, because these are deep holes. They have to be well thought through. The one thing about Carlin deposits is, it's very easy to vector in on them. To find them is the tough bit. You get there and thereabouts, but when you do discover them, they're small, but high, super high grade. The ounces just balloon, and that's what you're seeing in that one. The same with Ren. It was right in the middle, and we got two others. Rita K, Upper and Lower, also defined geological models, but no drill holes in them or very little, and also some had no hydrogeology.
Just to give you an idea, that is a significant reserve potential. We're not talking about even resources. To get there, you have to drill them out. It's taken us two and a half years. Well, it's actually only two years in Nevada. And we're now at the stage where we've got maiden resource declarations. You know, Turquoise Ridge, which was owned by Barrick, 25% ownership of Newmont in it, was using the Twin Creeks processing facilities. Twin Creek preferred their ore, although it came from open pit, it was complex and it was low grade. Barrick had all this high-grade ore, but it was constrained by what Newmont allowed it to use in its capacity. There was never any tension in the mine.
We came along, took the fence away, and suddenly it was drinking out of a fire hose. We didn't have the geology right, we didn't have the geotech right. We just, you know, when you have a mine like that and you have super high grades, people migrate to the high grades, but you get there and you've got the geotech wrong. We've only just got to that stage in Turquoise Ridge where we've got complete models now and we can plan with comfort. You know, to be able to do that as well, remember, both companies were centrally controlled. A lot of the planning was done on the demand from the CEO rather than the quality and capability of the ore body. We've moved that ownership back to the mines.
Now we have a lot more control through the mine of its exploitation of its own business plan. Definitely no greenfields exploration. The one thing I can assure you that Carlin has still got, you know, my first 10 years as a geologist, I never saw a gold grade above, like, one and a half grams unless I was in the Witwatersrand, and that was about 5,000 m below surface. You know, the quality of geology here is exceptional. I've just touched on two key greenfields targets that we've got in. But again, that's gonna take at least two seasons for us to create. This last year, and just to give you some idea, the hydrothermal geochemical footprints of Carlin deposits are significant.
You can poke a hole above the ore body and you'll see it. To vector into the actual ore body is quite difficult. This Turquoise Ridge, Twin Creeks section, we think has really got something because we've already done a pattern of short hauls just to test and plot out the geochemical halo. Now we're starting to vector into the target. It's genuine, scientifically led exploration, which is something that hasn't been done for a very long time in North America generally. That's where we are. Again, you know, the portfolio cupboard in Canada was empty, and we've had to generate our own portfolio there. That's why North America is so short of advanced targets. Lots of potential resources, we've got to get them through that final filter.
They all have real potential to pass our investment filters. Whereas in AME, in Africa, Middle East, remember, Randgold had that. We can tell you three years ahead our conversions because it's part of a integrated plan. Latin America was in the same boat. You know, it was being sold off effectively because people had lost confidence in that. Also, you know, relative to the stress on the balance sheet, it was better and makes sense. Of course, it made sense to stay with this, the North American Nevada assets and look to sell off the, and we've walked that all back. The other exciting thing is when you look at the global map, apart from the Russian and Chinese gold belts, we are covered. We can go.
We have geologists and mining engineers and lawyers and that in every gold province in the world. That's what we're busy exploiting now. I hope that answers your question. We also, by the way, I didn't tell you, we've started now, we're building an Asia Pacific team, geologists, mining engineers, legal people, because that's our next big growth mode, is around that area, both the Asian part and Asia and the Pacific Rim.
Brilliant. Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
Hi, Mark. It's Mike Bedford from Woodhill. Mark, at a company level, your unit cost increases seem to have been remarkably well maintained at a good level, given all the inflationary pressures we're seeing. Can you perhaps shed some light in terms of how you've done that and how you see inflationary pressures in the short term and some of the sticky ones for the longer term?
Yeah. I mean, I've said this, Mike, many times. When you act like an owner, you're a lot more obsessed about the costs. As you know, Barrick is by far a leader in how we, as we did in Randgold, incentivize our executive and lower down leadership with equity participation. We have a significant component of that. We teach our people to act like owners. Well, we demand that they do. With that, if you look at, we've also still taking out synergies, benefits from the merger in our discipline. We've taken out about $200 million of direct savings out of the supply chain since we joined forces.
We've got about $100 million to go in the next, by end of next year, Graham. We still have that benefit. To just give you an idea, we have always focused on long-term contracts with dampened abilities for people to change the costs. It's a whole process. We have multiple suppliers. We just reached agreement with some of our key suppliers, which have resulted in 20% reduction in costs. We have a long-term standing partnership with all our principal equipment suppliers. That goes down to the maintenance side of things. We also have a real commitment to change the age profile of our business. In Nevada, for instance, changed a lot.
You know, older people, with respect, Mike, are not as efficient as younger people. They don't come as expensive. You get more effective, more efficient, more modern thinking, a better appropriate engineering skills, et cetera. We've seen a lot of that, and you're gonna see more of that. Also, we've moved away from expatriates towards national-centric management, and particularly in Latin America, you'll see a big difference. Also in Porgera, although that's not coming through yet. Porgera was essentially a province of Australia, and everyone worked in Porgera out of Australia. We've changed that. Even the storemen and the storehouse was in Cairns rather than in Port Moresby.
You know, we've changed all that, and that's a common thread throughout. Lumwana, we've just about halved the mining costs in Lumwana, just because of focus on efficiency, you know, run times, cycle times, obsessed with the transport. We've got, as I touched on in my presentation, a few more bottlenecks to come through. Commercially, we still have some opportunities. On the logistics side, again, we're just so much better than most. You know, miners are not good logistics people. You know, growing up in Africa, we learned very quickly, if you can't get the logistics right, you're done. You know, things like consolidating freight has been a big boon for us through COVID.
Also the ability, our relationship that we brought to the partnership is, we have we can do multiple lines. You know, when we got to Nevada, the principal logistics company was DHL. You know, it's very hard to move a PC8000 shovel with DHL. You gotta have one of those very big, colorful boxes, you know? We've really gone local there, and we again, a big success. You know, on our but there is pressure on it. I would just, my cynical point of view, as we know in mining, a lot of price pressure comes from quality of ore body.
You've heard me say on many occasions, you know, one of the things that this industry, and I point specifically to our investors, is doing a disservice is sucking out all the free cash and dividends and not encouraging reinvestment. You've got a higher gold price. The people are exploiting it. Everyone's focused on the cash margins, and no one's focusing, as you saw us talk about it today, the replacement of the ounces you mine with the same quality of ounces. Those are all drivers of inflation. We would, you know, Graham will tell you that our inflation pressure outside the energy sector is 2%-3%. At the same time, we are obsessed about mitigating that every day. On the power side, it's a bit more.
You know, we have, you know, this power market, whether it's gas or diesel or heavy fuel, or even just, you know, we're generating power for our host countries at the moment because no one had anticipated the situation that we're currently experiencing. That's a bit more dynamic. We've got we are obsessed about long-term contracts. We have those that support us. In Africa, where we use more diesel, for instance, again, those countries dampen the diesel cost, for instance. You know, when it goes down, you don't get the full benefit. When it goes up, it's cushioned a bit. Those are helpful. We've done a lot, as you saw, on just changing our power generation towards renewable energy in a commercially beneficial way.
Do you wanna add anything?
No, I don't. I don't know. Is this working?
You can shout.
I'm worried about the people on headphones.
Oh, yeah, yeah, I know.
The only other point I would make is just the impact of, on royalties, from royalties on our costs. Obviously, both in the gold and copper space, we have seen an impact on our costs from, slightly higher gold price of. In 2021, we're using a $1,700 gold price, and obviously we've had prices closer to $1,800. But particularly on the copper side, where we were using a $2.75 copper price, and copper prices have averaged above $4, so that's another impact which, you know, one has to take into account as well. It's a high-class problem.
Yeah. That's something that, so it just underscores the even better performance on an operational sense. Anyone else? Can we migrate then to-
Global
to global questions on the Chorus call?
Yes, for sure. Our first question from the phone is from Danielle Chigumira with Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Great. Thank you. So with the final tranche of the return of capital declared, when, if at all, would you give the market some guidance on the additional dividends that it could expect above the $0.09 per share? Isn't there a balance to be struck between returns and reinvestment? Do you think you're at that right balance at $0.09 per share?
Danielle, we promised the market, as you know. At the start of this year, we were unsure. You know, we had a big task ahead of us. We had taken on this massive combination of three different entities, significant entities, and I've always been a great believer that dividends are driven by performance. What we found ourselves in the beginning of the year was a windfall cash balance because of our disposal of non-core assets, a total of $1.4 billion-$1.5 billion. We felt that, you know, again, I've always said, because I'm a key shareholder, is when you make more than you plan to make, you should give some of it back to shareholders.
We felt that it was a good idea to split that and give $750 million back to shareholders. It was on that basis, we explained to the market, and we kept our core dividend of $0.09, which we had increased threefold from the time we did the deal. We've always promised the market we'd come in with a more defined, definitive dividend policy when we spoke to you with our 2021 results, and we plan to do that.
Great. Thank you. That's very useful. If I can squeeze in one more. On the greenhouse gas emission, how actively are you considering the use of offsets? I saw it mentioned on the slide. Could you also give us a timeline where you'd have more visibility on the decarbonizing pathway for mining equipment?
Yeah. As you know, I think first of all, I'll just wait for you to give me a little bit of credit on showing you a roadmap to get 25% ticked off without drawing on any form of religion. And the 5%, I'm absolutely confident that we'll add to that, taking us to 30% by 2030. That. Having said that, we're not, as we pointed out, with our BEVs on underground equipment, and we've got many other initiatives. We've got a big initiative with our major supplier of utility vehicles. And there's a swath or more. But I mean, just the experience with the Sandvik project, there's no technology yet that actually allows you to plan in confidence.
We're investing in that technology, whether it's drilling technology, and again, we think that's quite an important component. Whether it's, we're looking now at a whole transport technology and, you know, every newspaper you open up has got hydrogen in it, but not too many hydrogen cars are driving around. Again, we've got a gap to go through. We're invested in that thought process. We're invested in carbon sinks; we're invested also in, or investing in, just the reduction of emissions, super efficient traditional engines and energy generation. There's an enormous amount to be had with that. A big migration to natural gas, which again is, you know, a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Definitely, you're right about vehicle efficiencies. That's where the technology needs to really land.
Just, you know, just to reinforce, battery technology, how everyone's got battery, there are so many battery factories. But batteries are the big batteries available today, some of the technology is showing improvement, but basically, it's just a pack of small batteries. You know, there's still a lot of work to go into batteries. I must say, our partnership with Sandvik, they've been putting a lot of thought and engineering and research into batteries. Again, batteries in a Tesla car and batteries in a 50-ton truck underground, different environment. We've got some way to go. But to give you confidence, we're fully invested in that. The vehicle of that investment, too, is that it's absolutely critical in our Scope 3 emissions, because it's all about transport and can we do it better.
Again, on our minds, we've got some really exciting projects to take hydrocarbon transport out of the loop or reduce it materially. You know, that's a big focus for us as well. What that does is, again, somebody asked me today, how much does this cost? The stuff that I showed you just now, that's all it improves the bottom line. It doesn't increase the bottom line. It's a very, you know, we have an obsession about making sure we use this in a properly sustainable way.
Great. Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
Our next question from the conference call comes from the line of Tanya Jakusconek with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Great. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much for taking my questions. I have three. Maybe if I could start just with Graham. Graham, just, when you were talking about the inflationary pressures and did mention the higher gold price impact on costs and obviously the Nevada tax that, you mentioned also in the press release. Should I be thinking inflationary pressures of about 2%-3%? Should I be thinking as we go into 2022 that the upper end of your cost guidance range would be an appropriate level to be at, or should I be thinking above that, putting inflation on top of that?
Tanya, hi. I think you need to obviously look at that guidance and add that inflation to it. You also need to adjust for those different royalty environments, and you need to adjust for the different power environments. Those are really the three components that are gonna drive that. As you say, the specific point that we've called out is the impact of the new Nevada education tax, which albeit is a tax, it comes through as a cost. That has an impact on those things. Those are really the four things. You know, when you look at the current numbers, you've got to effectively add those to it.
Having said that, obviously, as we look towards next year and we look towards our plans, you know, we've talked about some of the challenges that we're dealing with in our business. You know, Mark mentioned the slower ramp up at Hemlo and some of the other areas. Those things will also have an impact on our costs and on our planning. You know, it's a combination of all of that.
Tanya, I'd add to that, too, and that is if you take Hemlo out of our numbers and you accept the other impacts already embedded in our numbers, our numbers are below 1,000 all-in sustaining costs. Again, when you're looking at the range, Hemlo is a slightly different animal. Again, we'll bring those costs down from where they are today. You know, if you look at the run rate of our assets, and then you've also got to consider the grades and the ore bodies that are gonna be mined because you know, remember, we focus on dollar per ton and a discipline on the ore body side with our $1,200 gold price reserve limit. You know, it's a complicated question to answer.
The best thing, if you want some advice, the best thing is wait till February, and we'll tell you.
Well, I'm not that patient, I'm Mark, so
Just be careful.
Waiting might be
You might be wrong.
Yeah. I guess what I'm getting from you is that sort of a 3%-5% inflationary environment-
Yeah. Yeah
... as you get inventory that you have, etc , is sort of reasonable.
where I sit, you know, as Graham says, take the range and jack it up. It's still a range. It's not just taking the top end.
Yeah, no, I understand. Maybe Mark, if I have you on, I would just like to two other questions for you.
Yeah.
One, I wanted to talk about just Nevada Gold Mines. You mentioned the vaccination rate of 32%, I think, in the U.S. I mean, you know, I just kind of think of that number, and I think of the productivity and absenteeism with that number. What sort of impacts are you seeing on absenteeism and productivity in Nevada Gold Mines, and you know? Yeah, maybe start with that. How do we get, you know, how do we get through and improve this vaccination rate?
Yeah. Again, a very pointed question and well posed. Nevada Gold Mines led the fight against COVID and that first real you know sort of infection rate around the world. You know, we didn't miss a beat. We had, as the infection came, we were already warning the governor of Nevada, he better pay attention. We had instituted protocols when Vegas came to a grinding halt. The protocol process worked really well for us. Again, when the first round of vaccines, the first uptake was pretty good, but very quickly the southern part of Nevada overtook us. You know, there's a big political and social issue relating to the vaccine.
What we have done is, we've got various incentives in place. We have very strict protocols in Nevada. The deal is, you know, until we get a herd immunity, we are not prepared to put our workforce at risk. You wear the masks, you do your hand cleaning, you keep your distance, everyone, so even the ones that are vaccinated. We did the same, Tanya, in Canada, because again, there was a big anti-vaccine movement in Canada for a while. The government there helped us because it made it so difficult for you to even have a meal, go anywhere, watch a football game or an ice hockey game. The population very quickly moved to embrace vaccination, and then we mandated it.
We didn't lead the mandate. We were completely aligned with society in managing COVID. The same in Dominican Republic, we're 97% vaccinated. Again, you know, that was the president who led the way. It's a tourist destination, and he just, he was way ahead of the rest of the world. Argentina started very hesitantly, but it's also our operation. We haven't had a positive case up in Veladero for like four weeks now. So the challenge here is. Then we've just surveyed our workforce in Nevada, and one of the clear messages is people don't wanna be treated like children. The whole American approach to this is like no one really cares about the individual.
You know, if it's not coming out of CNN or Fox News or the White House, then it must be wrong. People take offense to that. You know, we've really engaged with our workforce. We've changed our approach to treat them like adults, which they are. We respect that. First of all, you know, we want people to ensure that they care about their fellow beings. I don't think we see much disparity activity when it comes to that. That's not the intention. We have had a recent fill-up to get to the 32%, quite a significant. I think it's about a 6% improvement. We've really changed our approach. We have mobile vaccine clinics. We are doing it along with the normal seasonal flu vaccines.
We've got a very big education program, and we'll just keep banging away at it. At this stage, we had another spike in line with everyone's fourth wave spike, but it's back down under control as we really pushed the protocols. I've got every confidence that, you know, we'll get there. We're talking about, you know, freedom of choice that we respect. At the same time, you need to be able to not let your fellow workers pay for your medical insurance because you've decided to take on that risk yourself. You know, those are the conversations we're having in an adult forum, and we certainly are seeing a difference. We have had a high degree of COVID cases without any symptoms, and so our
We are building that immunity anyway in the community. The problem in Northern Nevada too is a lot of people with morbidities. This virus, that's the real, it's a killer when you pick up this virus and you've got any sort of untreated morbidity. You know, I think it's a very challenging social task that we have to do. We've done it around the world, and you know, we've kept Africa safe and operating because the rest of the world neglected or denied Africa access to vaccines for a long time. Now we're getting them in, and every time we get a batch in, we distribute them immediately. You know, it's a challenge.
The mining industry is grappling more than anyone because we need people to go to work. I would suggest that, you know, Barrick's approach to this has so far been the appropriate sort of measure to deal with it.
Have you seen that, have productivity impacts from this in Nevada?
No. Yeah. There's Greg on the line. He's the expert.
Oh, yeah, go ahead.
I was gonna say, can I chip in on it?
Yeah.
Thanks, Tanya. Just the numbers for you. I guess last week we had 20 positive cases. We had over our 7,000 employees, we had 60 people off work. You talked about the absenteeism rate. That's about what we're looking at, so well less than 1%. It does impact production if you get a cluster of people in a particular area. Say you have a drill crew and the whole crew goes down, so there'll be a short-term impact for up to 10 days or 14 days while they clear and come back to work. The impact is there. There has been impact, but it's very minimal from the production perspective. They're the sort of numbers we're looking at.
As Mark said, we peaked about four or five weeks ago, but the numbers have started to come down dramatically and it's not impacting our production significantly.
That's good to hear. One last final question if I can for Mark. You know, I'm just intrigued about, you mentioned you're looking at your dividend policy for, you know, when you report your financials in Q1 of next year. I'm just trying to think about your stock. It's very cheap, and I'm trying to understand how you balance and would you look at share buyback versus the dividends or combination of both? Thank you.
Yeah. Tanya, we would look at anything. As you know, we look at this as a holistic measure. The most important job that we have is to ensure that we invest in our future. We have always, Graham and I, our whole career have built our dividend policies or return to shareholders on what the company delivers as far as a P&L goes. You need to afford your dividend, particularly in the gold mining industry, and buybacks have a role. We did the first compulsory buyback in Randgold here in London ever. There is ways to do that. And at the same time, you know, there's the market and analysts have a say in the valuation.
Again, we see the value sitting in Barrick as a very attractive investment opportunity. We've got no doubt that there are many people that have already started taking on that, you know, they're taking that opportunity. You know, we never say never. There's definitely opportunities on share buybacks. But the one thing that we have absolute agreement, and I do the same with my board, is we do not try and manipulate. We don't believe that buying shares or dividends or anything is. If you wanna do it to manipulate your share price, we're not here to do that. We are definitely here to take opportunities when we see that our share price is, you know, significantly undervalued.
At the same time, we are mindful that there are lots of owners that can do with a reliable dividend going forward. To do either of those, you've still got to deliver a highly profitable business. We've only been at this two and a half years. You know, we're competing with companies that have been around for a lot longer, so we're working on it.
I appreciate it. It's just if you trade the low bullion value, you know your shares should be purchased. Thanks a lot.
I haven't seen too many analysts giving us sort of significant values that would suggest that we should be doing that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question from the conference call is from Jackie Przybylowski with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
All right. Thanks very much. I think I just wanted to follow up on a comment that you made earlier, Mark, about investing in Canada. You mentioned, you know, prospective trends in Canada, which suggests to me that your thinking today is more on the greenfield side. Can you maybe talk about how you're seeing the growth opportunities maybe in Canada contrasted with the rest of the world? I know when I saw you in Denver, you'd mentioned Pakistan as well as being potentially interesting and I know you've got a lot of other exploration initiatives on the go. Like how would Canada fit in on that pecking order?
I think Canada is right up there with the most prospective. As I've learned about Canada, one of the things that I think, you know, I see is it sort of the mineral industry, and I wouldn't call it exploration, but the mineral opportunity industry goes from one bull market to the next. Most of it is managing a portfolio that sits on the shelf during the trough. Sure, in the trough there's a little bit of additional addition to the inventory. It lacks real exploration, and it has done for a while.
As you'll recall, Jackie, early, before COVID, so late 2019, I was talking about exactly that and that we made a decision to go out and build a world-class exploration team in Canada. We had enough legacy projects within Barrick to be able to have an appreciation of what there is there. We've done that. At the same time, we've also participated in every single bidding exercise in Canada. That's taught us a lot as well. You know, we don't dismiss opportunities to acquire things as long as we can deliver, as we've always demonstrated value. At the same time, we see a lot of value in Canada.
We have the absolute capability of, one, recognizing it and two, evaluating or chasing it up the value curve. That's, you know, it doesn't mean to say that we won't snatch an opportunity that arises. You know, if you look at my history, it's always been grounded in organic growth. I think, you know, at the same time, we're not scared of stepping into a ring when there's a quality prize up for grabs. I don't think we'll change that strategy.
Understood. I mean, I was hoping to get a comment from you, too, on Reko Diq. I know in September you talked about that as being something you guys were essentially looking to get back into. Is that still the case? Or is that something that maybe we should think about as a much longer dated opportunity?
No, it's a very real opportunity. We worked very hard at securing an award. As you know, when I stepped into Barrick, there were a lot of conflicts with host countries, and we've slowly ticked them all off and converted them into a win-win situation genuinely, not sort of, you know, sort of some sort of abstract win-win. Reko Diq is a world-class asset. It's really there because of the investments that Barrick and Antofagasta made in the joint venture. You know, it sits in the upper echelon of quality assets. We have an opportunity to develop it without having to pay for it, because we've already got the award, because we already did the initial work.
At the same time, we earn our own reward back and the host country gets the benefit alongside us, and everyone wins. In this modern world, you know, to think you can go and at risk of any upfront investment so that that asset makes sense for us to look at. We are looking at it. We will continue to engage with the host country government and other stakeholders to see if we can deliver it in a way where we manage the Barrick risk, investment risk and at the same time deliver real value for all the stakeholders as we do in all the countries we work in. That's the way we look at it.
I appreciate that. Thank you very much.
Pleasure, Jackie.
That's all my questions. Thanks much.
Thank you, Jackie.
There are no further questions registered in the conference call, sir.
All right. Well, thank you, everyone. I appreciate your time and I look forward. Again, you know, we're all available to take questions if you want to. If you haven't thought of one yet and you do, please reach out to myself or the rest of the team or just get a hold of Lois or Cathy and ping us a question. We'll be back with an answer. Thank you very much again for those who made the effort to come in today. I appreciate it. Thank you.