"The report raises several troubling and at times inaccurate allegations about either Barrick’s or its affiliate’s environmental and human rights performance. Many of these matters have been discussed in considerable detail in the past, so rather than repeat that information here, we provide a higher-level response and point interested readers to further information.

Before doing so, we want to signal our agreement with the authors’ view on the importance of transparency and dialogue between companies and its stakeholders. In this vein, we first share some of the steps taken to provide information to our financial and other stakeholders on our toughest environmental, social, and human rights issues, as well as the ways we are listening to their concerns and interests in the first place.

We do this in the belief that transparency - whether through disclosing our salient human rights risks, our tax and royalty payments to governments, or how much energy and water we use - is integral to being a trusted partner of anyone with whom we interact..."