BAMAKO (Reuters) -A court in Mali on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Barrick Mining to release four employees arrested last November, judge Samba Sarr said, the latest development in a long-running standoff between the Canadian firm and the Mali government over taxes and ownership of mining operations in the country.
The appeal by the company, which has dismissed the allegations against the four local employees as baseless, was determined by the judge to be “unfounded”, said Alifa Habib Kone, a lawyer for Barrick.
The employees face charges including money laundering and violation of other regulations, Kone said.
Barrick has said it refutes the charges against its employees.
Barrick and Mali’s military-run government have been in negotiations since 2023 over the implementation of a new mining code that raises taxes and gives the government a greater share in the country’s gold mines.
Barrick owns 80% of the Loulo-Gounkoto mining complex in Mali and the government owns the rest. Operations have been suspended since mid-January after the government blocked Barrick’s gold exports and seized three metric tons of its stocks.
Malian authorities arrested the four employees in late November and they have been in pre-trial detention in Bamako, according to Barrick’s website.
Mali also issued an arrest warrant last December for Barrick CEO Mark Bristow who is based in Toronto. He is accused of money laundering and violating financial regulations, according to the warrant document.
Governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – all led by juntas – are all seeking to renegotiate new terms with gold miners to gain a bigger share of mining revenue at a time when gold prices have soared.
Mali represents 14% of Barrick’s gold output and the company generated $949 million in revenue from its operations there in the first nine months last year.
(Reporting by Tiemoko DialloWriting by Ayen Deng BiorEditing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Susan Fenton)
