Independence Requirement of National
Instrument 52-110
A member of the Audit and Risk Committee shall be considered
"independent", in accordance with National Instrument 52-110 -
Audit and Risk Committees ("NI 52-110"), subject to the
additional requirements or exceptions provided in NI 52-110, if
that member has no direct or indirect relationship with the
Company, which could reasonably interfere with the exercise of the
member's independent judgment. The following persons are
considered to have a material relationship with the Company and, as
such, can not be a member of the Audit and Risk Committee:
- an individual who is, or has been within the last three years,
an employee or executive officer of the Company;
- an individual whose immediate family member is, or has been
within the last three years, an executive officer of the
Company;
- an individual who:
- is a partner of a firm that is the Company's internal or
external auditor;
- is an employee of that firm; or
- was within the last three years a partner or employee of that
firm and personally worked on the Company's audit within that
time;
- an individual whose spouse, minor child or stepchild, or child
or stepchild who shares a home with the individual:
- is a partner of a firm that is the Company's internal or
external auditor;
- is an employee of that firm and participates in its audit,
assurance or tax compliance (but not tax planning) practice,
or
- was within the last three years a partner or employee of that
firm and personally worked on the Company's audit within that
time;
- an individual who, or whose immediate family member, is or has
been within the last three years, an executive officer of an entity
if any of the Company's current executive officers serves or served
at the same time on the entity's compensation committee; and
- an individual who received, or whose immediate family member
who is employed as an executive officer of the Company received,
more than $75,000 in direct compensation from the Company during
any 12 month period within the last three years, other than as
remuneration for acting in his or her capacity as a member of the
Board of Directors or any Board committee, or the receipt of fixed
amounts of compensation under a retirement plan (including deferred
compensation) for prior service for the Company if the compensation
is not contingent in any way on continued service.
In addition to the independence criteria discussed above, for
Audit and Risk Committee purposes, any individual who:
- has a relationship with the Company pursuant to which the
individual may accept, directly or indirectly, any consulting,
advisory or other compensatory fee from the Company or any
subsidiary entity of the Company, other than as remuneration for
acting in his or her capacity as a member of the board of directors
or any board committee; or as a part-time chair or vice-chair of
the board or any board or committee, or
- is an affiliated entity of the Company or any of its subsidiary
entities,
- is deemed to have a material relationship with the Company, and
therefore, is deemed not to be independent.
The indirect acceptance by an individual of any consulting,
advisory or other fee includes acceptance of a fee by:
- an individual's spouse, minor child or stepchild, or a child or
stepchild who shares the individual's home; or
- an entity in which such individual is a partner, member, an
officer such as a managing director occupying a
comparable position or executive officer,
or occupies a similar position (except limited partners,
non-managing members and those occupying similar positions who, in
each case, have no active role in providing services to the entity)
and which provides accounting, consulting, legal, investment
banking or financial advisory services to the Company or any
subsidiary entity of the Company.
Independence Requirement
of NYSE Rules
A director shall be considered "independent" in
accordance with NYSE Rules if that director has no material
relationship with the Company that may interfere with the exercise
of his/her independence from management and the Company.
In addition:
- A director who is an employee, or whose immediate family member
is an executive officer, of the Company is not independent until
three years after the end of such employment relationships.
- A director who receives, or whose immediate family member
receives, more than $120,000 per year in direct compensation from
the Company, other than director or committee fees and pension or
other forms of deferred compensation for prior service (provided
such compensation is not contingent in any way on continued
service), is not independent until three years after he or she
ceases to receive more than $120,000 per year in such
compensation.
- A director who is (i) a current partner or employee of the
Company's internal or external auditor, (ii) was within the last
three years a partner or employee of the auditor and personally
worked on the Company's audit during that time or (iii) whose
immediate family member is a current partner of the Company's
auditor, a current employee of the auditor and personally works on
the Company's audit or was within the last three years a partner or
employee of the auditor and personally worked on the Company's
audit during that time is not "independent".
- A director who is employed, or whose immediate family member is
employed, as an executive officer of another company where any of
the Company's present executives serve on that company's
compensation committee is not "independent" until three years after
the end of such service or the employment relationship.
- A director who is an employee, or whose immediate family member
is an executive officer, of a company that makes payments to, or
receives payments from, the Company for property or services in an
amount which, in any single fiscal year, exceeds the greater of $1
million, or 2% of such other company's consolidated gross revenues,
is not "independent" until three years after falling below such
threshold.
A member of the Audit and Risk Committee must also
satisfy the independence requirements of Rule 10A-3(b)(1) adopted
under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as set out
below:
In order to be
considered to be independent, a member of an Audit and Risk
Committee of a listed issuer that is not an investment company may
not, other than in his or her capacity as a member of the Audit and
Risk Committee, the board of directors, or any other board
committee:
- Accept directly or indirectly any consulting, advisory, or
other compensatory fee from the issuer or any subsidiary thereof,
provided that, unless the rules of the national securities exchange
or national securities association provide otherwise, compensatory
fees do not include the receipt of fixed amounts of compensation
under a retirement plan (including deferred compensation) for prior
service with the listed issuer (provided that such compensation is
not contingent in any way on continued service); or
- Be an affiliated person of the issuer or any subsidiary
thereof.
An "affiliated person" means a person who directly
or indirectly controls Kinross, or a director who is an employee,
executive officer, general partner or managing member of an entity
that directly, or indirectly through one or more intermediaries,
controls, or is controlled by, or is under common control with,
Kinross.
Financial Literacy Under National Instrument
52-110
"Financially literate", in accordance with NI 52-110, means that
the director has the ability to read and understand a set of
financial statements that present a breadth and level of complexity
of accounting issues that are generally comparable to the breadth
and complexity of the issues that can reasonably be expected to be
raised by the Company's financial statements.
Financial Expert under SEC Rules
An Audit and Risk Committee financial expert is defined as a
person who has the following attributes:
- an understanding of generally accepted accounting principles
and financial statements;
- the ability to assess the general application of such
principles in connection with the accounting for estimates,
accruals and reserves;
- experience preparing, auditing, analyzing or evaluating
financial statements that present a breadth and level of complexity
of accounting issues which are generally comparable to the breadth
and complexity of issues that can reasonably be expected to be
raised by the registrant's financial statements, or experience
actively supervising one or more persons engaged in such
activities;
- an understanding of internal controls and procedures for
financial reporting; and
- an understanding of Audit and Risk Committee functions.
An individual will be required to possess all of the attributes
listed in the above definition to qualify as an Audit and Risk
Committee financial expert and must have acquired such attributes
through one or more of the following means:
- education and experience as a principal financial officer,
principal accounting officer, controller, public accountant or
auditor, or experience in one or more positions that involve the
performance of similar function;
- experience actively supervising a principal financial officer,
principal accounting officer, controller, public accountant,
auditor or person performing similar functions;
- experience overseeing or assessing the performance of companies
or public accountants with respect to the preparation, auditing or
evaluation of financial statements; or
- other relevant experience.
Exceptions to Independence Requirements of NI 52-110 for
Audit and Risk Committee Members
Every Audit and Risk Committee member must be independent,
subject to certain exceptions relating to (i) controlled companies;
(ii) events outside the control of the member; (iii) the death,
disability or resignation of the member; and (iv) the occurrence of
certain exceptional circumstances.