Bamako, Mali – (AFP) – Mali has arrested four Malian employees of the Canadian company Barrick Gold, the firm said Tuesday, in the latest detention of a foreign mining company’s employees by the ruling junta.
The employees were detained pending trial, Barrick Gold said, adding that it disputed the charges, without specifying what its employees were accused of.
Since coming to power in a 2020 coup, Mali’s military rulers have promised a fairer distribution of revenue from the foreign-dominated mining industry in the west African country.
In recent months foreign miners have come under pressure from the military authorities, which are seeking to assert their control of the lucrative mineral sector.
Together with the Malian state, Barrick Gold owns one of the world’s largest gold mines, the open-pit Loulo-Gounkoto site in the country’s west, where the four arrested employees worked.
The Canadian firm owns 80 percent, with Mali retaining the rest.
The arrests follow the detention of four other Barrick Gold employees in September for undisclosed reasons.
After their release several days later, Barrick indicated it had found a solution to its disputes with the Malian state.
But Mali’s mining and economy ministries later accused the Canadian firm of failing to honour its commitments.
Warning of “consequences”, the authorities raised the prospect of “serious risks” for the group’s future in Mali.
Barrick said Tuesday that it would “continue to engage with the Malian government to find an amicable dispute settlement”.
“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,” it said.
– Lucrative gold revenues –
Despite being one of the leading gold producers in Africa, Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world.
The west African state is embroiled in a political, security and economic crisis, and since 2012 has been battling Al-Qaeda and Islamic State jihadist groups as well as a separatist insurgency in the north.
Gold mining provides a quarter of the national budget, three-quarters of export earnings and 10 percent of its economic output.
Vowing to increase the country’s sovereignty and control over its natural resources, the military rulers have increasingly set their eyes on the sector’s juicy revenues.
The increased pressure on foreign companies has coincided with the junta’s pivot toward Russia and away from former colonial ruler France.
Earlier in November, the British CEO of Australian gold miner Resolute Mining was arrested along with two employees after coming to Bamako for what the company thought were routine negotiations with the authorities.
Instead, chief executive Terence Holohan and two of his colleagues were detained for questioning.
They were released after several days in exchange for a commitment from Resolute to pay the Malian government $160 million.
That fee represents a significant financial hurdle for a company whose financial statements say it currently holds $157 million in cash.
In August 2023, Mali adopted a new mining code allowing the state to take a stake of up to 30 percent in new projects.
The reform also abolished tax exemptions granted to companies during the mining process.
© Agence France-Presse
