Australian gold miner to pay Mali $160mn over tax dispute

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Resolute Mining is to pay the Mali government $160mn to resolve a tax dispute that led to the detention of the mining company’s chief executive.

The Anglo-Australian gold miner said on Monday that it had made an initial payment of $80mn to settle claims related to tax, customs levies and offshore accounts. It said it would pay the remainder in coming months.

Resolute said it had signed a protocol with the government and was working on steps for the release of three employees, including its chief executive Terence Holohan, who have been detained for more than a week in Mali. 

“They remain safe and well and continue to receive support on the ground,” said Resolute. “The company notes that operations on site continue as normal and have not been impacted.”

Holohan’s detention has raised alarm among miners operating in the gold-rich African nation, escalating concerns that long-term agreements with the military junta, which took power in 2021, will be scrapped.

Last year, Mali rewrote its mining code to extract higher revenue from companies. A number of businesses have signed up to the code but Resolute, alongside Canada’s Barrick Gold, had not renegotiated existing contracts under the new law. Holohan and the other executives had travelled to Bamako to meet tax authorities ahead of their “unexpected” detention, according to the company. 

Shares in Resolute, which initially said the tax claims were “unsubstantiated”, are down more than 40 per cent since news of Holohan’s detention. The stock fell by as much as 5 per cent on Monday after the company detailed the size of the settlement. 

“The signing of the protocol sets the framework for further detailed discussions with the government regarding the long-term future of the operations in Mali,” the company said.

Relations between the junta and the former colonial power France have deteriorated in recent years, with Mali’s leaders instead building closer ties with Russia. French troops left the country in 2022.

One Australia-based mining analyst said the departure of French forces had created a vacuum and removed “a stabilising force” in the region for mining companies.