By Divya Rajagopal and Portia Crowe
TORONTO/DAKAR (Reuters) -Blasting is scheduled to begin at Barrick Mining’s Loulo underground gold mine in Mali on October 15, four months after a court-appointed provisional administration took control of the site, two sources told Reuters.
Under the provisional administration, operations at the Loulo-Gounkoto gold complex have so far been limited to transporting existing ore stocks to its plant and processing them there.
The provisional administrators had planned to resume active mining in September, one of the sources said, but pushed back the start date as they negotiated with subcontractors, some of whom had not been paid since Barrick suspended operations in January.
UNPAID BILLS SETTLED, PIT MINE ACTIVITIES STILL SUSPENDED
Blasting, which entails breaking down gold deposits using explosives, will resume after the administrators resolved unpaid bills with subcontractors Sandvik and Maxam, the sources said.
Activities are, however, not expected to resume next week at the complex’s open pit mine, as the main subcontractor operating that site has still not been paid, the first source said.
Barrick suspended operations at Loulo-Gounkoto amid fraught negotiations with Mali’s military-led government over how to implement a new mining code that increased taxes and gives the state a greater ownership stake in assets.
That led a Bamako court in June to appoint provisional administrators, led by former Malian health minister Soumana Makadji, to restart operations at the complex.
Loulo mine has since produced some 1.07 metric tons of gold from ore stocks that had been mined before the suspension, the second source said.
A spokesperson for Mali’s mines ministry declined to comment. Makadji and spokespeople for Barrick, Sandvik and Maxam did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
BARRICK, MALI TALKS CONTINUE, ARBITRATION DECISION EXPECTED
Negotiations between Barrick and the Malian government have continued intermittently throughout the year, with a round taking place in August. Weeks later, Barrick announced the sudden departure of CEO Mark Bristow.
The parties are also in international arbitration at the World Bank’s arbitration court, which is expected to rule on the legitimacy of the provisional administration this month, according to a source aware of the development.
The World Bank’s arbitration body did not respond to requests for comment.
Mali’s industrial gold production fell 32% year-on-year to 26.2 tons at the end of August, weighed down by the Barrick suspension, according to a mines ministry document seen by Reuters last week.
(Reporting by Divya Rajagopal and Portia Crowe; Editing by Veronica Brown and Joe Bavier)
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