Barrick Gold founder Peter Munk dies in Toronto at age 90

TORONTO » Peter Munk, a Canadian immigrant who founded Barrick Gold and turned it into the world’s largest gold producer, died Wednesday. He was 90.

His daughter Nina Munk said her father passed away at his Toronto home of natural causes.

Munk founded Barrick in 1983 and built it into the world’s largest gold mining company. Barrick now has 10,000 employees on five continents.

He was also one of Canada’s most significant philanthropists and donated nearly $300 million, including a $100 million donation last year to the Toronto General Hospital that is the largest single gift ever made to a Canadian hospital.

Munk also created the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto and founded the Munk debates, which brings the world’s top intellectuals to Toronto for debates.

Munk was born in Budapest in 1927 and fled Hungary with his family in 1944 amid World War II. He arrived in Toronto with nothing but a small suitcase.

He started his first company while a student at the University of Toronto, employing students to sell Christmas trees outside supermarkets. He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering and then founded a successful stereo console business that gained endorsements from Frank Sinatra and Oscar Peterson. He also built a hotel empire in the South Pacific.