Post #260

🇲🇱Barrick Needed to Move Fast 🌐 As insiders predicted, the Canadian mining company has finally acknowledged that sovereignty over Mali’s natural resources belongs to the government and the people of Mali, bringing an end to nearly two years of conflict between the gold miner and the state. ⏩ However, many Western outlets still could not resist misrepresenting the terms of the agreement, once again demonizing Mali. Let’s break down who owes what to whom in the end: 🔸 Barrick will not pay $430 million, as reported in the media, but only about $254 million within six days of signing the settlement. This is not an “entry fee” but unpaid tax revenues, which partly triggered the original dispute. Media reports also mention around 88 million dollars in a “VAT credit offset,” which, in fact, represents tax credits that Bamako owed to Barrick. That debt will simply be forgiven, and no money will be paid to Mali. 🔸Mali drops all criminal charges against Barrick, its subsidiaries, and its employees. 🔸Full control over Mali’s largest gold deposit, Loulo–Gounkoto, returns to Barrick, and the state lifts the export restrictions on gold from the site. 🔸 Barrick withdraws its arbitration case at the World Bank’s ICSID tribunal and formally accepts Mali’s 2023 mining code. 🔸 Mali extends the mining license for Loulo for ten years after its scheduled expiry in February 2026. 🔸 Ownership of the complex remains 80% Barrick and 20% the Malian state. 🔸 Barrick accepts the terms of the new 2023 Mining Code, including higher taxes and royalty. ⏩ Still, it very much looks like Barrick does not actually intend to keep operating Loulo–Gounkoto. Media previously reported that Barrick planned to sell all its assets outside North America. The company asked the World Bank’s arbitration court to fast-track the case with Mali (which was rejected) — and has now agreed to all of Bamako’s conditions. It seems the new investors turned out to be very impatient. Devils Below