Resolute Mining (RSG) will hand the government of Mali $160mn (£127mn) to ‘settle’ claims of tax underpayment that also led to the country locking up the company’s chief executive Terry Holohan on 8 November. The payment will be split into an immediate $80mn transfer from the gold miner’s cash holdings and another $80mn from “existing liquidity sources”.
Holohan and the two other employees remain locked up in Bamako, the country’s capital.
A similar approach by the junta in September led to Barrick Gold (US:ABX) handing over $85mn after four employees were detained. The government was also pushing Resolute and Barrick to shift to a new mining code put in place by the government last year, following a change in power through a coup in 2021. Mining companies are usually able to keep operating on the terms agreed when their mines were first given permits. Other miners in Mali have signed up to the new code as permits expired and needed to be renewed. Resolute said at the end of October it had agreements for its Mali mine Syama and development project Tabakaroni running until 2029.