Barrick Announces Inaugural Members of Corporate Social Responsibility Advisory Board

TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire - March 2, 2012) - Barrick Gold Corporation is pleased to announce it has established a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Advisory Board and named five distinguished individuals to serve as inaugural members. The Advisory Board will provide external advice and guidance to Barrick management on the Company's global CSR performance and evolving best practices in CSR.


Inaugural members of the CSR Advisory Board are:

- Aron Cramer, President and CEO of Business for Social Responsibility and a globally-recognized authority on CSR

- Elizabeth Dowdeswell, President and CEO, Council of Canadian Academies and former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program

- Robert Fowler, diplomat and senior foreign policy advisor to three Canadian Prime Ministers and Canada's longest serving Ambassador to the United Nations

- Ed Liebow, Director of the Battelle Memorial Institute's Seattle-based Center for Public Health Research and Evaluation

- Gare Smith, senior partner at Foley Hoag LLP and former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor

John Ruggie, author of the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, will serve as a Special Consultant to the Board as part of his advisory role in the CSR practice at Foley Hoag LLP. He is the Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Affiliated Professor in International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School.

The Board will serve in an advisory capacity and act as a sounding board on a broad range of CSR issues, including community relations, sustainable development, the environment, human rights and security and stakeholder engagement. It will also provide a forum for constructive feedback, dialogue, and collaboration and inform Barrick's CSR programs and future practices.

"These highly respected individuals bring a wealth of expertise and experience in corporate responsibility matters that will be a great asset to Barrick," said Aaron Regent, Barrick's President and CEO. "Their input and guidance will help us to further improve our practices and manage emerging issues affecting our Company and the global mining industry."

Advisory Board members reflect a diversity of CSR expertise and stakeholder groups. Members will provide advice in an individual capacity, rather than on behalf of any organization or stakeholder group. They have been chosen based on their in-depth knowledge of social and environmental best practices for international companies and their understanding of the key issues affecting the mining industry.


Biographies

CSR Advisory Board Members

Aron Cramer: Mr. Cramer is recognized globally as an authority on corporate responsibility by leaders in business and non-governmental organizations and peers. As President and CEO of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), he advises senior executives of BSR's 250 member companies and other global businesses, and is regularly featured as a speaker at major events and in the media. Under his leadership, BSR has doubled its staff and significantly expanded its global presence. Mr. Cramer is co-author of the book Sustainable Excellence: The Future of Business in a Fast-Changing World, which profiles CSR strategies that drive business success. He joined BSR in 1995 as the founding director of its Business and Human Rights Program, and in 2002, he opened BSR's Paris office, where he worked until becoming President and CEO in 2004. Previously, Mr. Cramer practiced law in San Francisco and worked as a journalist at ABC News in New York.

Elizabeth Dowdeswell: Ms. Dowdeswell is President and CEO of the Council of Canadian Academies, an organization that provides independent, evidence-based scientific assessments that inform public policy development. She has served as Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. Her work as the founding President and CEO of Canada's Nuclear Waste Management Organization resulted in a government decision on the long-term management of Canada's used nuclear fuel. As Assistant Deputy Minister of Environment Canada, she was responsible for the national weather and atmospheric agency, including negotiating the Framework Convention on Climate Change. She has led public inquiries into politically sensitive issues, such as Canada's unemployment benefits program and federal water policy. Her early career included terms as Deputy Minister of Culture and Youth for the Province of Saskatchewan, university lecturer and high-school teacher. She is a Director on the Boards of several corporations and advisor to a number of Canadian and international not-for-profit organizations.

Robert Fowler: During his 38-year public service career, Mr. Fowler was the Foreign Policy Advisor to Canadian Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau, John Turner and Brian Mulroney. He was Canada's longest serving Ambassador to the United Nations, Deputy Minister of National Defence, Ambassador to Italy and the three Rome-Based U.N. Food Agencies, and the Personal Representative for Africa of Canadian Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and Stephen Harper. In 2005, he chaired Prime Minister Martin's Special Advisory Team on Sudan. Mr. Fowler retired in the fall of 2006, and is currently a Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. In July 2008, the U.N. Secretary General appointed Mr. Fowler to be his Special Envoy to Niger. In 2011, Mr. Fowler wrote "A Season in Hell" in which he recounts his and his colleague, Louis Guay's, kidnapping by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and their 130 days of captivity in the Sahara Desert.

Ed Liebow: Dr. Liebow directs the Battelle Memorial Institute's Seattle-based Center for Public Health Research and Evaluation. For more than 30 years, he has conducted social, environmental, and public health policy research in a variety of settings, focusing on public engagement, community development, and promoting access to services for the disadvantaged and under-served. His academic training is in cultural anthropology, and he is affiliated with the University of Washington, where he teaches courses in ethnographic research methods. Dr. Liebow is also affiliated with the Institute of Sustainable Economies at the Università Carlo Cattaneo in Castellanza, Italy. He is a Fellow, Executive Board Member and Treasurer of the American Anthropological Association.

Gare Smith: Mr. Smith founded and chairs the corporate social responsibility practice at the law firm Foley Hoag LLP. He provides counsel on compliance programs to address labor conditions, community relations, security, indigenous rights, environmental stewardship, and the rule of law. Mr. Smith previously served as Vice President for CSR at one of the world's most recognized clothing brands. As Senior Foreign Policy Advisor and Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, he created the first voluntary code of conduct for U.S. multinationals. He was appointed by the White House to serve as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. In that role, he helped to launch President Bill Clinton's Model Business Principles and served as U.S. representative to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, the International Labor Organization, and the U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Peoples. Mr. Smith has authored three books on codes of conduct and international human rights standards, which were published by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.


Special Consultant

John Ruggie: Mr. Ruggie is the former U.N. Secretary General's Special Representative for Business and Human Rights, a current Harvard professor, and recently joined Foley Hoag LLP's corporate social responsibility practice as a senior advisor. One of the premier authorities on corporate citizenship and responsibility, Mr. Ruggie served as U.N. Special Representative for Business and Human Rights from 2005-2011 with a mandate to propose measures to strengthen human rights performance of the business sector around the world. He authored the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which the U.N. Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed in 2011. In his role at Foley Hoag, Mr. Ruggie advises clients on human rights-related risk and other aspects of corporate citizenship. This includes helping multinational clients navigate the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and apply them to their global business practices. He is the Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights and International Affairs at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and an Affiliated Professor in International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School.


About Barrick

Barrick Gold Corporation is a Toronto-based gold mining company and industry leader, with a portfolio of 26 operating mines, and projects on five continents. Barrick trades on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges and employs 25,000 people worldwide. The company has been ranked as a world leader in social and environmental responsibility for the fourth consecutive year by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Barrick is also listed on the NASDAQ Global Sustainability Index of the top 100 companies.

Learn more about Barrick's social, environmental, safety and economic development programs at www.BarrickBeyondBorders.com.

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Contact Information

INVESTOR CONTACT:
Greg Panagos, Senior Vice President
Investor Relations and Communications
+1 416 309-2943
gpanagos@barrick.com

MEDIA CONTACT:
Andy Lloyd, Senior Manager
Communications
+1 416 307-7414
alloyd@barrick.com