Resolute Mining shares drop 32% after Mali arrests CEO, 2 executives

Australian gold miner, Resolute Mining’s shares dropped as much as 32% on Monday (11 November) following the arrest of its CEO and two executives while in Mali to discuss “claims made against” the company with the country’s authorities.
CEO Terence Holohan and his two colleagues “were in Bamako to discuss with mining and tax authorities the company’s business practices in Mali generally and to make progress on ongoing claims against Resolute, which continues to claim they are unfounded,” Resolute said in a statement on Sunday (10 November). The three employees were “unexpectedly detained” after the end of these meetings on Friday, the Australian company added. The three executives were subsequently taken to the unit specializing in the fight against corruption and economic and financial delinquency, and placed in police custody in a case of alleged forgery and damage to public property, according to the reports by AFP.
Foreign mining companies, which have long dominated Mali’s mining sector, have become the subject of increased pressure from the junta that came to power by force in 2020. The junta-led government has thus introduced a revised mining code as part of its push to acquire a larger portion of the mining industry’s juicy revenues. This code aims to boost the government’s ownership in gold projects, part of efforts to funnel more mining profits into state coffers. This arrest of Resolute’s executives makes it the second time in two months employees of foreign mining firms have been detained in Mali, which is one of Africa’s leading gold producers. In September, the junta-led government ordered the arrest of four employees of the Canadian company, Barrick Gold.