{"id":1145066,"date":"2019-10-21T17:51:48","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T22:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resourceworld.com\/?p=56741"},"modified":"2019-10-21T17:51:48","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T22:51:48","slug":"barrick-gold-outlines-acacia-deal-with-tanzania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1145066","title":{"rendered":"Barrick Gold outlines Acacia deal with Tanzania"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barrick Gold Corp.<\/strong>\u2019s [ABX-TSX; GOLD-NYSE] said it has reached a comprehensive agreement with the Government of Tanzania (GoT) to resolve ongoing disputes related to the operations of its Acacia Mining unit.<\/p>\n

News of the resolution comes more than two years after Tanzania imposed a concentrates export ban after alleging that mining companies had underpaid up to US$50 billion in taxes over the past 20 years. It recommended that an export ban on concentrates remain in place until the back taxes are paid.<\/p>\n

The GoT subsequently stated that it would not sign any agreements related to the ongoing disputes directly with Acacia (under its previous management), a move that prompted Barrick to offer to consolidate its ownership of Acacia in order to facilitate a deal with the GoT. Acacia has three mines in Tanzania, including Bulyanhulu, Buzwagi, and North Mara.<\/p>\n

The terms of the deal appear to resolve certain key issues, including back taxes, go-forward economic split between Barrick and GoT, lifting of concentrate export ban (in place since March 2017), which should allow Barrick to begin re-opening the Bulyanhulu underground mine.<\/p>\n

However, Barrick shares reacted to the lower gold price Monday, falling 2.2% or 50 cents to $22.08. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $15.37 and $26.69.<\/p>\n

The final agreements have been submitted to the Tanzanian Attorney General for review and legalization. In conjunction with the agreement, the company has formed a new operating company called Twiga Mineral Corp. to manage the Bulyanhulu, North Mara, and Buzwagi mines. Twiga is the Swahili word for giraffe, Tanzania\u2019s national symbol.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, Barrick will pay $300 million to settle all outstanding tax. Economic benefits of the mines will be shared on a 50\/50 basis (in the form of taxes, royalties, clearing fees, and a new 16% free carried interest).\u00a0 An annual tune-up mechanism will also be put in place to maintain the 50\/50 split.<\/p>\n

The agreement also establishes a \u201cunique, Africa-focused dispute resolution framework\u201d though no specific details have been provided.<\/p>\n

Other potentially material issues not addressed in the release include the treatment of VAT credits (i.e. whether Barrick will receive VAT refunds, dor\u00e9 and\/or concentrate exports) or whether GoT will back down from previous demands for Barrick to build a smelter in Tanzania.<\/p>\n

It is thought likely that these issues have been dealt with in the agreement.<\/p>\n

Speaking after a meeting with the chairman of the Negotiating Committee of the Government of Tanzania, Prof Palamagamba Kabudi, Barrick President and CEO Mark Bristow said the agreements introduced a new era of productive partnership with the GoT and would ensure that Tanzania and its people would share fully in the value created by the mines they hosted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barrick Gold Corp.’s [ABX-TSX; GOLD-NYSE] said it has reached a comprehensive agreement with the Government…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"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":[622],"tags":[48],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145066"}],"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\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1145066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1145067,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145066\/revisions\/1145067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1145066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1145066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1145066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}