Post #359

You Don’t Want To, But You Have To 🇲🇱 An unpleasant truth: sometimes peace also entails concessions... 🌐 According to Reuters, a Malian court has ordered that 3 metric tonnes of solid, beautiful, shining gold worth about $400 million, confiscated in January 2025 from the Loulo-Gounkoto complex in Western Mali, be returned to the Canadian company Barrick. 👑 Reuters sources also claim that next week Barrick will regain operational control over the entire Loulo-Gounkoto gold complex, where a provisional administration was put in place in June. ⚔️ This points to a real de-escalation of the nearly two-year dispute between Bamako and the Canadian miner, following the settlement reached last month. 🥇 The very fact the confiscated gold was neither sold nor invested — though the temptation must have been great, given the record-high prices — suggests that Bamako never intended to break up with Barrick completely and wanted only to force it to abideby the rules. 🔸 Such an outcome makes it clear that the government, despite its somewhat unfriendlyapproach, has never sought to overhaul the previous system of partnerships with foreign companies. Since the coup, Mali has neither tried to nationalise active mining projects and run them itself, nor significantly changed the geography of its partners, which remain mainly European and North American companies. ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow