{"id":1121891,"date":"2019-06-19T10:58:36","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T10:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=994132"},"modified":"2019-06-19T10:58:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T10:58:36","slug":"acacia-disputes-barricks-criticism-of-mine-plans-asks-investors-to-take-no-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1121891","title":{"rendered":"Acacia disputes Barrick\u2019s criticism of mine plans, asks investors to take no action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acacia Mining (LON:ACA) has hit back at its majority shareholder<\/a>, Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX)(NYSE:GOLD), promising a detailed response to claims that its mine plans in Tanzania are not appropriately risked or supportable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company strongly disagrees with a number of statements made in the announcement,\u201d said Acacia, urging its shareholders to take no action.<\/p>\n

It also said it was \u201csurprised\u201d with the circumstances and timing of the comments, which immediately followed earlier announcements regarding Acacia\u2019s agreement to Barrick\u2019s request for an extension to the bidding deadline.<\/p>\n

Barrick, which owns about 64% of Acacia, made an\u00a0informal proposal\u00a0in May to buy out Acacia\u2019s minority shareholders with its own shares, at a ratio that implied a discount to the unit\u2019s market value. But the\u00a0$285-million offer<\/a> was considered by the African miner\u2019s investors and some analysts as low.<\/p>\n

The Canadian gold giant originally had until Tuesday to come up with a formal, perhaps better bid, but UK regulators granted the company a further three weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Barrick\u2019s chief executive Mark Bristow confirmed on Wednesday<\/a> the company has called on minority shareholders to back the company\u2019s all-paper offer for Acacia Mining, warning of a \u201ccatastrophic\u201d loss of value if they oppose the deal.<\/p>\n

He went on to openly question Acacia\u2019s assumptions for resuming operations at its flagship Bulyanhulu mine, saying Barrick was more cautious on grade, annual mining volumes and production rates.<\/p>\n

Acacia, Tanzania\u2019s No.1 gold producer, has been embroiled in a\u00a0battle with the East African nation since 2017<\/a>, when the \u00a0government banned exports of unprocessed metal and slapped it with\u00a0a $190 billion tax bill<\/a>\u2014 equal to almost two centuries worth of revenue.<\/p>\n

The company, which spun off from Barrick in 2010<\/a>, was also forced to cut output by a third from two of its three mines in the country \u2014 Bulyanhulu and Buzwag.<\/p>\n

Since then, the relationship between Barrick and Acacia has been strained and progress moving an agreement forward has been \u201calmost impossible,\u201d\u00a0chief executive Mark Bristow\u00a0acknowledged last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The executive has also said Barrick has no intention of raising its offer to buy out the rest of troubled African unit, adding that Tanzania is not prepared to enter into a settlement directly with Acacia.<\/p>\n

Bristow believes his proposed buyout is the\u00a0most \u201cappropriate\u201d and \u201celegant\u201d solution<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0long-running row\u00a0over outstanding tax claims that has hit Acacia\u2019s bottom-line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The African gold miner promised a detailed response to Barrick’s claims that its mine plans in Tanzania are not appropriately risked or supportable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121891"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1121891"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1121981,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121891\/revisions\/1121981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1121891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1121891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1121891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}