By Divya Rajagopal, Portia Crowe and Giulia Paravicini
(Reuters) -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, two 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.
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 country’s 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 1% on the TSX at 1355 EST.
A delegation of more than 15 representatives of Malian ministries as well as the presidency and the private consulting firm Iventus 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.
(Reporting by Divya Rajagopal, Giulia Paravicini and Portia Crowe, editing by Silvia Aloisi, Veronica Brown and Deepa Babington)
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