Mali takes control of Barrick's mine

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Bulletin #75

June 18, 2025

The 2-year saga between the Malian government and Barrick has escalated once again as Mali has taken the drastic step to operate Barrick's large Loulo-Gounkoto gold mine in Mali "for 6 months".

This comes very close to looking like an expropriation of the mine. I wouldn't be surprised to see them keep extending this "temporary" action.

While we don't own Barrick in our portfolio, I'd like to address how this may effect B2Gold who operates their large Fekola gold mine in Mali.

This latest move by Mali comes after:

• December 2024 - Mali blocks exports of gold from Barrick's Loulo-Gounkoto mine

• December 2024 - Mali issues arrest warrant for Barrick's CEO Bristow

• January 2025 - Mali's military seizes 3 metric tonnes of gold from Loulo-Gounkoto (claims that the gold still belongs to Barrick and is being held as collateral until the Barrick/Mali tax dispute is resolved)

• January 2025 - Barrick suspends operations at the mine until export restrictions are lifted

• April 2025 - Mali closed Barrick's local office over unpaid taxes

• June 16th 2025 - Mali takes over operations at the mine "for a period of 6 months"

There've been several times over the past year where it appeared that Mali and Barrick were on the verge of a resolution but each and every time negotiations have fallen through.

Why has Barrick been through all of this while B2Gold has mostly avoided all confrontation with Mali?

A few reasons:

• There is bad blood between Barrick's CEO Mark Bristow and Mali's negotiating team.

  • Mamou Toure and Samba Toure (no relation despite the same last name) are two of the key members on Mali's side. Samba used to work for Bristow at Randgold as the West Africa operations director.

  • Samba and Bristow had a falling out and Samba ended up losing vested stock options upon his resignation which probably deepened his resentment towards Bristow.

  • Mamou left Randgold after a dispute with Bristow in 2015.