(Reuters) -Barrick Mining has agreed to a 244 billion CFA francs ($430 million) settlement with Mali, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Canadian miner on Monday reached an agreement with Mali’s government to resolve all their disputes over the Loulo-Gounkoto gold mining complex after two years of negotiations.
Barrick said it would drop the arbitration case against Mali at the World Bank dispute tribunal, and in return, Mali will drop all charges against Barrick and its affiliates, release four employees from jail, and give operational control back to Barrick.
Bloomberg News said Barrick is due to pay 144 billion CFA francs within six days of signing the agreement with Mali’s government.
Another 50 billion CFA francs will come via VAT-credit offsets, while an installment of the same size was already paid last year, the report said.
Barrick Mining did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
($1 = 566.0000 CFA francs)
(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
