MALI: Canadian firm halts operations at mine

  Canadian firm Barrick Gold said Tuesday it was temporarily suspending operations at its Loulo-Gounkoto mine in Mali after the junta seized gold stocks from the site amid a months-long revenue dispute. The West African state’s military rulers have stepped up pressure on foreign firms after promising a fairer distribution of revenue from the country’s […]

 

Canadian firm Barrick Gold said Tuesday it was temporarily suspending operations at its Loulo-Gounkoto mine in Mali after the junta seized gold stocks from the site amid a months-long revenue dispute.

The West African state’s military rulers have stepped up pressure on foreign firms after promising a fairer distribution of revenue from the country’s lucrative mining industry.

Barrick Gold and the Malian state have been at loggerheads over the underground, open-pit Loulo-Gounkoto site in the country’s west – one of the world’s largest gold complexes.

“The company remains restricted from shipping gold from the Loulo-Gounkoto mining complex,” Barrick Gold said in a statement published Tuesday.

The company said that Malian authorities had additionally carried out an interim attachment order by moving the existing gold stock on site to a custodial bank.