The co-chairperson of the world’s biggest gold mining corporation earned more than four times the compensation of its chairperson, reveal public documents.

Peter Munk, 86, who will step down as chairperson of the Barrick Gold Corporation before this year’s upcoming shareholder’s meeting, earned little more than $4-million in 2012. For the same year, the corporation’s co-chairperson John Thornton, 60, earned $17-million in his one year on the board.

Thornton’s compensation for 2012 is also more than Munk’s amount for the last four years.

Munk founded the Toronto-based corporation in 1983. The gold mining company met trouble in 2012 when its stock price fell dramatically on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The stock has fallen 60 per cent from January 2011 to January 2012.

Shareholders have put pressure on the board to make changes, such as appointing more independent directors. It is because of this pressure that the gold corporation announced in July that Munk would step down and be replaced by Thornton.

Heavy with debt, Barrick Gold stock has not done well with falling gold prices over the last few years. It has also spent more than expected on a South American mine. In November, the corporation had a difficult time selling off $3-billion in stock meant to pay off its $1,848-billion of debt to be paid in the next year.

While the corporation’s revenue over the last five years has grown year-to-year, its growth declined sharply in 2012. The high was 35 per cent growth from 2009 to 2010. Revenue growth for 2012 stands at two per cent.

Thornton spent 23 years at Goldman Sachs and was seen as a top contender there to succeed Henry Paulson as CEO in the early 2000’s. But he left the firm in 2003 and turned his attention to Chinese economic policy.

Thornton said to Chinese media that China learns about the United States more than the U.S. learns about China. He said he wants to be a bridge of understanding between the two countries.

He became a professor teaching business leadership courses at Tsinghua University, in Beijing. His annual salary from the university was a dollar, a detail the Chinese media characterize as proof of his sincerity.

In 2008, the Chinese government gave Thornton the Friendship Award. However, after more than 20 years of rubbing shoulders with China’s policy makers, the greater reward for him and Barrick Gold may be the social connections he cultivated, which include China’s premier and central bank chief.

Zhu Guangming, an economist in Wuxi, China, says selecting Thornton is “a smart move” for Barrick Gold, because of the increasing demand for gold from a more urbanized population.

“It is believed by many Chinese people that gold is likely to be devalued, so a large number of people buy it as another form of saving,” Zhu said. “The increasing variety of gold investment products also encourages more people to buy gold.”

According to the World Gold Council, demand for gold in China has grown more than five times in the decade. In 2003, demand for gold in China was more than $30-billion. In 2012, demand grew to $170-billion.