Four employees of Canada's Barrick Gold (ABX.TO) have been charged and detained pending trial in Mali, the company said on Tuesday, as the military-led government strives to raise more money from mining companies.
Mali is one of Africa's top gold producers and briefly arrested four senior local employees of Barrick in September. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the same employees had been arrested again.
Barrick refutes the charges against its employees, the company said in a statement, without detailing the charges. It added it would continue to engage with Mali's government to find an amicable settlement and secure the release of detainees.
"Since September 30, the company had been actively seeking to finalize a Memorandum of Agreement that would guide Barrick’s partnership with the government in future, including the state’s share of the economic benefits," the statement said.
Barrick CEO Mark Bristow told Reuters in early November that the world's No. 2 gold miner was confident of resolving claims and disputes with authorities before the end of the year.
Mali's mines ministry told Reuters it was not directly involved in the case, adding it was handled by the economy and finance ministry and the justice ministry's economic division.
The West African country is demanding about $500 million in unpaid taxes from Barrick, Reuters has reported citing sources, as the government tries to wring more income from the sector to shore up state revenues as prices of the precious metal rally.
Australia's Resolute Mining (RSG.AX) said last week its CEO Terence Holohan and two other employees, who were detained by the Mali government earlier this month, had been released from the country.
They left the capital Bamako after the miner agreed to pay $160 million to the Mali government to help resolve the tax dispute.
