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"Having held hybrid meetings for the last several years, Barrick is well-positioned to leverage its prior experience using a virtual meeting platform and to easily move the entire meeting to a virtual format for this year," the company said.

It said it would make a physical location available for the May 5 event "if circumstances allow".

Newmont said last week no one would be able to attend its April 21 annual meeting in person due to the pandemic. 

Barrick shareholders will be asked to elect nine director nominees, appoint Pricewaterhouse Coopers as auditor for 2020 and approve a non-binding advisory vote on Barrick's approach to executive compensation.

The information circular said executive chairman John Thornton had received US$5.55 million in total compensation for 2019, compared with $12.86 million in 2018.

President and CEO Mark Bristow, who was named Mining Journal's CEO of the year in 2019, received $17.37 million in total compensation for his first year at the helm of the enlarged gold miner.

Bristow held 5.5 million shares at March 2.

Thornton held 5.2 million shares at the same date but last week sold about half his holdings, worth about US$50 million, due to "personal portfolio considerations". 

Barrick's share price rose by about 37% on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019.

In Toronto, its shares have ranged from C$15.73-$29.94 over the past year and last traded at $28.25, capitalising it at $50.2 billion (US$35.3 billion).