The dispute erupted last November when the authorities of this country arrested four executives of the multinational, still under police custody for lack of an agreement for the payment of debts.

At the beginning of this month, the investigating magistrate, Boubacar Moussa Diarra, warned the Canadian company by letter that the three tons of gold, valued at 180 million dollars, would be seized.

Barrick sources confirmed that the mineral is in the possession of the government, which refrains from issuing an official statement on the subject.

This is not the first conflict of the government of Mali, one of the main African gold producers, with a foreign transnational for demanding the renegotiation of the agreement on the participation of the state in the profits from the exploitation of national resources.

Last November the CEO of Resolute Mining and two employees were arrested on their arrival in the capital and released after the Australian transnational agreed to pay 160 million dollars in evaded taxes: a first installment of 80 million and the remaining 80 million coming from the revenues from the sale of the mineral.

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