Mali court places Barrick's Loulo-Gounkoto mine under state administration

A court in Bamako has placed Barrick's Loulo-Gounkoto gold complex under state control, in a major escalation of the miner's long-running dispute with Mali's government over taxes and ownership.

The presiding judge named Soumana Makadji, a former health minister and accountant, as provisional administrator for at least six months, according to Reuters. Barrick said it would appeal the ruling, arguing that the process was unfair. “Justice was neither heard, nor served,” Issaka Keita, one of the company's lawyers, told the newswire.

Government pushes to reopen a stalled mine

Loulo-Gounkoto has been suspended since mid-January, after Mali's government blocked gold exports and seized gold stocks held by Barrick's local subsidiaries — moves the company has called unjustified. Mali, which holds a shareholding in the complex, asked the Bamako Commercial Court in May to appoint an administrator, signalling its determination to restart production while gold prices are near record highs. Reuters estimated that a reopened mine could generate at least $1bn in revenue over the following year.

The underlying dispute dates back to 2023, when Mali introduced a new mining code raising taxes and giving the state a bigger share of gold projects. Barrick and the government have been in on-off negotiations over its implementation ever since, without a settlement.

Why it matters

Loulo-Gounkoto normally accounts for around 14% of Barrick's total gold output, making its prolonged idleness a significant drag on the group's production and cash flow. The court's decision to hand day-to-day control to a state-appointed administrator, rather than wait for a negotiated settlement, signals that Mali's junta is prepared to act unilaterally to unlock revenue from the country's most valuable mine, even at the risk of a protracted legal fight with one of the world's largest gold producers.

For other foreign miners operating in Mali and the wider Sahel, the ruling is a further sign that governments in the region are willing to use courts and provisional administrators, rather than negotiation alone, to enforce new resource-nationalist policies.

What's next

Barrick's appeal will test how much room Malian courts are willing to give a foreign investor once a state administrator is in place. In the meantime, attention shifts to whether Makadji's administration can actually restart mining and processing at Loulo-Gounkoto, and on what terms Barrick's staff and contractors will be permitted to keep working at a mine the company insists remains legally its own.

Sources

• Miningmx: Mali court places Barrick gold complex under administration, 17 Jun 2025

Photo: The flag of Mali, whose government placed Barrick's Loulo-Gounkoto mine under state administration. Aerra Carnicom, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.