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21-02-2025
BAMAKO/ OTTAWA: Canadian miner Barrick Gold has signed a new agreement with the Malian government to end an almost two-year-old dispute over its mining assets in the West African country, four people familiar with the developments told Reuters on Wednesday.
Barrick has signed the agreement and it is now up to Mali’s government to formally approve the deal, the sources told Reuters. An official announcement could come as early as Thursday. Another source said that though a deal was close, last minute hurdles could still derail it.
The Toronto-based miner and Mali have been locked in a dispute since 2023 over the implementation of the West African country’s new mining code that gives Mali’s government a greater share in the gold mine.
As part of the new agreement, Barrick will pay a total of 275 billion CFA or $438 million to the Mali government, in return for the release of detained employees, seized gold, and restarting the operations at the Loulo-Gounkoto mine.
Barrick did not immediately respond to an email query by Reuters. A spokesperson for Mali’s mines ministry declined to comment.
The company’s shares were up 3.37% on the Toronto Stock Exchange at 2:38 p.m.
A delegation of more than 15 representatives of Malian ministries as well as the private consulting firm Iventus Mining completed a three-day inspection of Barrick’s mining complex on Wednesday, according to five sources.
Mali late last week gave Barrick a one-week deadline to restart operations, four of the sources said.
A new agreement with Mali would give a bump to Barrick’s operations at a time when the gold prices have been hitting an all-time high but investors have not seen a similar return reflected on the company’s share performance.
In an interview with Reuters earlier this month Mark Bristow, CEO Barrick said that both the company and Mali were losing on the closure of the mine, with Mali losing out on its share of the revenue with every week the mine remained shut.
He said that Barrick paid $460 million to the Mali government last year and would have contributed about $550 million to the nation’s treasury this year if operations had not been suspended.
Barrick lowered its gold output forecast this year to between 3.2 million ounces and 3.5 million ounces due to the temporary halt at the Mali mine. Barrick’s gold output was 3.9 million ounces last year and 4.1 million ounces in 2023.
Military governments in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso are using legal disputes, arrests, and nationalizations, as well as threats to deepen their ties with Russia, to assert greater control over their gold and uranium wealth.
After seizing power in 2020, Mali’s junta pledged to scrutinize its mining sector so the state would benefit more from gold prices running at all-time highs.
Some Western miners, like Canada’s B2Gold, reached an agreement swiftly, opens new tab. Others, like Australia’s Resolute, who’s CEO was detained while in Mali for talks, took longer.
Barrick has also launched arbitration against Mali, and it is unclear whether, in light of the new agreement, the company will drop its case.
For 2024, Mali contributed $1.07 billion in revenues for Barrick, a 1% increase from the previous year.
Mali’s industrial gold production plunged 23% year-over-year in 2024.
Such a deal would bring an end to a standoff over the distribution of revenue from Barrick’s Loulo-Gounkoto operation, a mining complex that’s key for both the company and the government. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
