A standoff over a remote gold mine in Papua New Guinea threatens Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow’s streak of resolving thorny disputes with host governments, in the first major test he has faced outside his home patch of Africa.
Barrick, the world’s second-largest gold producer, lost a key court challenge last week over rights to the Porgera gold mine. PNG Prime Minister James Marape in April refused to extend Barrick’s lease for the requested 20 years and instead gave the lease to a State-owned mining company Kumul Minerals Holdings.
The setbacks are a blow for Barrick and Bristow, who has touted Porgera as a springboard for a potential buyout of Freeport McMoRan’s Grasberg copper and gold mine in neighboring Indonesia.
Revered as a mining industry titan across Africa and the Americas, Bristow has a long track record of solving seemingly intractable issues, most recently settling a long-running tax dispute in Tanzania.