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CONSIDERING THAT THE JOINT VENTURE IS A TRUE 50/50, HOW DO YOU NAVIGATE AROUND POSSIBLE DISAGREEMENTS AND STALEMATE JOINT VENTURE SITUATIONS?
Our joint venture with Barrick is indeed a true 50/50. The board of the joint venture entity, Donlin Gold LLC, comprises two representatives from each company. The role of chair alternates annually and the board meets quarterly to review the strategic plans and activities, together with the approval of the budget. Dispute resolution mechanisms are in place to ensure that the Donlin Gold project progresses at a healthy pace and in the best interest of its stakeholders – including Native Corporation partners who are mandated, under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971, to develop the land for the economic benefit of their people in the region.
Catherine Raw, Barrick’s chief operating officer, North America, served as the chair of Donlin Gold LLC in 2020. This year, Greg
Lang, NOVAGOLD’s president & CEO, is its chair. The joint venture has been operating in this manner for many years. In fact, it is important to note that there is a lot of Barrick DNA around the table. The Barrick side is represented by a team of its most seasoned operating talent, while the NOVAGOLD side is represented by two of Barrick’s senior operating alumni – Greg Lang, former president of Barrick North America and Richard Williams, NOVAGOLD’s vice president of engineering and development, who, among other things, was previously in charge of building Pueblo Viejo, now
one of Barrick’s most important mines. Thus, the joint venture can be best characterized by a spirit of high professionalism enhanced by a tremendous track record of technical excellence, safety, environmental stewardship, and social responsibility. That is the culture of Barrick and NOVAGOLD – and hence the common currency of Donlin Gold.
HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERIZE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR NATIVE CORPORATION PARTNERS, CALISTA CORPORATION AND THE KUSKOKWIM CORPORATION?
Calista and TKC are significant stakeholders of Donlin Gold
– an important project that was designated by law for mining activities some five decades ago. Donlin Gold is a party to life of mine agreements with Calista, which owns the subsurface mineral rights, and with TKC, a collection of 10 village corporations, which owns the surface rights. Over the years, with the many challenges we all had to face as well as the opportunities that were accorded to us, we have become a real family – one that has been fortunate to share in the incredible value generated by the advancement of Donlin Gold.
For over 20 years, Donlin has enjoyed great relationships with Calista and TKC. We’ve got a long history of hiring people from the project’s region to work on-site and we’ve remained constantly active in the area. Our company has long believed that this level of engagement and community support constitutes the fabric of the mining business and it is a core principle that we take to heart. We have done so for more than two decades and we will continue to.
I think we’ve all seen far too many projects get derailed because such relationships were not nurtured from the beginning. I could not be prouder of the work we’ve done with our partners and we’re clearly seeing the benefit of that in our successful navigation of both the state and federal permitting processes.
As we all respond to the COVID-19 crisis and help address the impact it has had on the health of our communities, our economies, and even how we communicate with one another, significant comfort can be derived from the longstanding relationships that unite us in the common goal of advancing the Donlin project. In reaching out regularly to our stakeholders, interacting with our investors to improve our governance practices, and engaging in meaningful ways to promote the health and safety of our people onsite – and indeed throughout the region – Donlin Gold brings much-needed assistance to the well-being of our communities. We’re really all in this together.
In 2020, Donlin Gold continued its multi-decade collaboration with its Native Corporation partners and, if anything, these relationships deepened. Apart from the fact that approximately
80 percent of Donlin Gold’s direct hires for the drill program
were Alaska Natives, we endeavored to be there for our partners in every way possible. We and our partners initiated more than
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