Four Barrick Gold employees detained in Mali

Four employees from Barrick Gold‘s (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) Loulo-Gounkoto mining complex have been charged and detained in Mali as a trial awaits, while the military-led government intensifies efforts to impose additional taxes on mining companies.

Barrick said in a news release on Tuesday that it refutes the charges, which weren’t specified, and that it would continue to engage with the Malian government to find an amicable dispute settlement that would ensure the long-term sustainability of the complex.

Barrick CEO Mark Bristow said that since Sept. 30, the company had been actively seeking to finalize a memorandum of agreement that would guide the company’s partnership with the government in future, including “the state’s share of the economic benefits generated by the complex” and “the legal framework under which this would be managed.”

“Our attempts to find a mutually acceptable resolution have so far been unsuccessful, but we remain committed to engage with the government in order to resolve all the claims levied against the company and its employees and secure the early release of our unjustly imprisoned colleagues,” he said.

Discussions between Barrick and Malian authorities on implementing new regulations at Loulo-Gounkoto — one of the African nation’s largest gold mines — have been ongoing for months.

Four Barrick employees had already been arrested in October.

Last week, Resolute Mining (ASX: RSG; LSE: RSG) CEO Terry Holohan and two other employees were released from detention in Mali, just days after the gold mining company agreed to pay about $160 million to resolve a tax dispute with the government.

Mali is one of Africa’s top gold producers, and the detention of foreign officials is becoming a pattern as the government seeks to extract more income from the sector.

The nation has been under military rule since 2020, when interim leader Colonel Assimi Goita overthrew the elected president, citing the administration’s inability to counter Islamist insurgencies.

Since the coup, Kremlin-backed Wagner Group mercenaries have entered the country, prompting the withdrawal of European forces and a United Nations peacekeeping mission.

Shares of Barrick fell 0.1% to $24.69 apiece on Tuesday afternoon in Toronto, giving the miner a market capitalization of $44.6 billion.