Malian tax officials on Monday unlocked Barrick Gold’s main office in the capital after a court put the company’s flagship Loulo-Gounkoto complex under temporary state control, two people familiar with the decision said.
The Commercial Court of Bamako on June 16 named former health minister Soumana Makadji as provisional administrator while Mali presses a tax-and-ownership dispute with the Canadian miner. Makadji met Barrick employees and subcontractors at the reopened office on Monday and plans to visit the mine later this week, the sources said.
Barrick, which says it will appeal the ruling, has been at odds with Mali’s military-led government since 2023 over a new mining code that raises taxes and increases the state’s equity share. The government halted gold exports from Loulo-Gounkoto in mid-January, seized about three metric tons of bullion and shut the Bamako office in April, forcing production to a standstill.
Spokespeople for Barrick and the Mines Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The mine, one of Africa’s largest, produced nearly 550,000 ounces of gold last year.