Exclusive: Mali’s Barrick Gold contractors fire employees due to a government conflict, according to records and sources

Following a two-year disagreement between the Canadian miner and the state, at least four subcontractors that employ several hundred people at Barrick Gold’s (ABX.TO) new tab complex in Mali are laying off employees, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and individuals familiar with the situation.

A few of the subcontractors claimed that Barrick had not paid them in months. The layoffs suggest that there is no immediate prospect of a settlement to the conflict between the West African country and the world’s second-largest producer of gold.

Since January, Barrick’s Loulo-Gounkoto complex, which is the largest mining operation in Mali and a significant source of gold production for the Toronto-based company, has been suspended after the government seized about 3 metric tons of gold stock from it on the grounds that the company had failed to pay taxes.

The company’s gold shipments have been halted since early November by the Mali government, which came to power following coups in 2020 and 2021 and implemented a new mining legislation in 2023.

Following the suspension of its contract with Barrick on January 25, Boart Longyear’s local subsidiary, BLY Mali, announced in a letter dated Friday that it was liquidating the business, claiming that this action “placed BLY in an irremediably compromised situation.”

As of March, it had 98 employees at the site, a document seen by Reuters showed.

In a letter seen by Reuters on Friday, ETASI, a heavy equipment rental company, stated that it will suspend all employees. The letter was dated Wednesday. According to the same internal document, as of last month, it had 68 employees.

After a three-month temporary work stoppage that started earlier this year ended, workers at ATC, a metal construction company, received letters from a work-placement firm informing them that they were being let go. The source shared one of the letters, which was dated Tuesday and obtained by Reuters on Friday.

According to the internal document, as of March, ATC had only four employees in the mining complex, compared to 45 in January.

Some of the staff numbers could be higher. According to a person familiar with the situation and a letter seen by Reuters, MAXAM, a civil explosives subcontractor for the Loulo-Gounkoto complex, will declare a temporary work stoppage for the majority of its workers in Mali as early as Saturday.

Although the internal document states that as of March, the subcontractor had 69 workers at the site, the source claims that because its workers rotate, the actual number is almost twice that, at around 120.

A government document obtained by Reuters on Friday states that Eneva-based subcontractor SGS (SGSN.S), opens new tab, was given a three-month temporary work stoppage that started on February 1 and is scheduled to end next week. What will be done once it expires is unknown.

Requests for comment from representatives of Barrick Gold, Mali’s mines ministry, BLY, ETASI, ATC, SGS, and MAXAM were not immediately answered.

ASSIMILATION

Authorities in Mali closed Barrick’s office in the capital, Bamako, last week due to suspected tax nonpayment, intensifying the conflict.

According to a person acquainted with the situation, Barrick workers have been paid to continue working at the mining complex even after the office was closed and operations were suspended.

As part of a first wave, approximately 40 Malian Barrick employees from the Loulo-Gounkoto complex are being moved, at least temporarily, to Barrick’s Kibali mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the same source said, adding that a total of 100 Malian employees have been identified for relocation.

The Malian government has not yet approved or implemented the agreement that Barrick reached in February to resolve the conflict.