Mali to sell Barrick’s gold: Reuters

The court-appointed administrator of Barrick Mining’s (TSX: ABX; NYSE: B) Loulo-Gounkoto complex in Mali is planning to sell a tonne of the site’s gold to pay for restarting the mine, according to Reuters.

Funds from the planned gold sale could be worth about $107 million (C$146 million) and be overseen by Soumana Makadji, acting as temporary administrator of the mine operation, Reuters reported on Tuesday citing multiple sources. The plant resumed operations on Monday, they said.  

Barrick CEO Mark Bristow told Reuters the restart was illegitimate and that the company would challenge the move in international court. The CEO and company didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from Mining.com, part of The Northern Miner Group.  

Loulo-Gounkoto represents one of Barrick’s most significant assets, accounting for about 15% of its total output up until its suspension this January. The junta’s control of the complex, and the asset sale, which is not part of the three tonnes of gold the government seized last year, bodes ill for Western operators in a slew of Africa states run by military dictatorships. 

Shares in Barrick fell 3.7% to C$28.43 apiece in Toronto by early Tuesday afternoon, valuing the company at C$48.7 billion. 

Four months

The gold sales may pay for salaries, fuel and unpaid dues to contractors, Reuters said. However, one of the sources said the scale of Loulo-Gounkoto presented challenges and crews would need at least four months to resume normal output.

Makadji and Samba Toure, the state mining company’s chairman and former Loulo-Gounkoto executive, who supports the sale, couldn’t be reached for comment, the news agency said. It declined to name its sources because they were unauthorized to release the information.

The gold complex has become the subject of intense dispute between the Canadian miner and the Malian state for the past two and a half years following the introduction of a new mining code in 2023.

Exports blocked

The situation escalated in late 2024 as Mali’s military-led government, which held a 20% in Loulo-Gounkoto, looked to stamp its authority by blocking Barrick’s gold exports, seizing its stockpiled production and detaining company staff. These actions eventually led to its suspension earlier this year.

Eyeing a restart of operations under its control, the Malian state asked the commercial court in Bamako to intervene in the dispute in May and place the gold mines under provisional administration. That request was met last month, with the court appointing Makadji as administrator for six months.

In late June, a Bloomberg report came out stating that Makadji wants to restart gold mining at Loulo-Gounkoto for its potential contributions to the Malian economy.