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Mali claims Barrick Gold violated deal as miner disputes

Published

1 day ago

October 25, 2024

Mali accused Barrick Gold of not upholding promises made in a recent agreement but the Canadian miner refuted the accusations on Thursday, stating it did not accept any misconduct allegations.

Days after Malian authorities briefly detained four of the company’s Malian employees, Barrick, the second-largest gold miner in the world, stated on September 30 that it had reached an agreement with the government to settle disagreements over the Loulo and Gounkoto gold mines.

However, Mali’s mining and economy ministries declared in a joint statement on October 23 that Barrick had “not honoured the commitments to which it subscribed in the agreement.”

The ministries stated that the violations included those on foreign currency regulations, corporate social responsibility, and the environment, but they did not provide any additional information.

They stated that there were “serious risks to the group’s continued operations in Mali, one of whose operating licenses expires at the beginning of 2026.”

“The Malian government has decided to draw all legal consequences arising from the actions taken by Barrick Gold,” they said.

Barrick responded by refuting the accusations and said that it has been actively working with the government since September 30 in order to come to a settlement that would improve the state’s portion of the economic advantages from the Loulo-Gounkoto complex.

“While Barrick does not accept any claims of wrongdoing, it has chosen to act in good faith as a long-standing partner of Mali,” it said in a statement, adding that the company had paid the government $85 million in early October in the context of ongoing negotiations.

According to three people who spoke to Reuters earlier this month, Mali’s military government is pursuing Barrick for at least $300 billion CFA francs ($512 million) in unpaid taxes and dividends.

A Barrick representative who was asked to respond at the time stated that the business was still negotiating.

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Finance minister says reduced oil prices pressuring Angola

Published

5 hours ago

October 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Angola’s finance minister has told journalists that falling oil prices put “lots of pressure” on the nation, predicting that prices would average between $70 and $72 per barrel in 2024 as opposed to $75.

In an interview conducted on the fringes of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Washington, Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa stated that the government of the continent’s second-largest crude oil exporter will likewise keep phasing down fuel subsidies.

“How many steps we didn’t decide yet, but our idea is to do it in steps,” she said, confirming that subsidies were amounting to around 4% of GDP this year.

At the start of this year, Angola departed from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

On Friday, Brent crude futures rose 2.25% to $76.05 a barrel. Analysts have cautioned that next year’s high supply and weak demand will put pressure on oil prices.

According to Daves de Sousa, the administration will submit its budget to Parliament the following week, and during the next few days, the numbers regarding the amount of outside funding that will be required will be finalised.

Angola is considering internally whether to apply for a loan program from the International Monetary Fund, she said.

“We asked for a note with options of programs in case we request, and considering our current situation, what they understand as a good program for us,” she said.

According to her, the administration was also looking at other options, such as combining funds from domestic banks and capital markets with support from other multilateral sources like the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

Angola’s most recent IMF program, worth $3.7 billion, was approved in December 2018 after the country’s earnings were severely damaged by the collapse of global petroleum prices.

Angola’s finance minister has told journalists that falling oil prices puts “lots of pressure” on the nation, predicting that prices would average between $70 and $72 per barrel in 2024 as opposed to $75.

“How many steps we didn’t decide yet, but our idea is to do it in steps,” she said, confirming that subsidies were amounting to around 4% of GDP this year.

At the start of this year, Angola departed from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

On Friday, Brent crude futures rose 2.25% to $76.05 a barrel. Analysts have cautioned that next year’s high supply and weak demand will put pressure on oil prices.

Angola is considering internally whether to apply for a loan program from the International Monetary Fund, she said.

“We asked for a note with options of programs in case we request, and considering our current situation, what they understand as a good program for us,” she said.

Angola’s most recent IMF program, worth $3.7 billion, was approved in December 2018 after the country’s earnings were severely damaged by the collapse of global petroleum prices.

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IMF recommends exporting African countries make crucial changes. Here’s why

Published

5 hours ago

October 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Abebe Aemro Selassie, director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Africa, has stated that countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that rely on commodity exports must change their economies to address uneven regional economic growth.

According to the IMF’s most recent World Economic Outlook, which was released this week, the region is predicted to develop by 3.6% this year, which is unchanged from last year and lower than an April prediction of 3.8%. Commodity economies are likely to lag behind their more diverse rivals.

According to the IMF’s assessment, the growth of the commodity-intensive nations is around half that of the rest of the region, with oil exporters bearing the brunt of what it called “subdued and uneven” regional growth.

“South Sudan, Nigeria, Angola are all very much in that camp,” Abebe told Reuters.

The IMF’s regional economic outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa was released on Friday, and while diverse economies like Senegal and Tanzania are predicted to develop at a rate higher than the regional average, Nigeria would only grow at a rate of 2.9%.

“They have had very large macroeconomic imbalances, financing challenges which have held back growth,” Abebe said.

He claimed that because those issues had led to rising inflation and pressure on the expense of living, the Nigerian government needed to “squarely address” them.

The administration of President Bola Tinubu has started a number of measures that it claims are intended to boost economic expansion and draw in foreign investment. The IMF predicted that South Africa, whose growth has been hampered by debilitating power outages, would expand by 1.1% this year.

The IMF stated that armed conflicts are also impeding growth, pointing to the fact that South Sudan’s oil exports are impeded by fighting in neighbouring Sudan, where the crude export pipeline is located.

“They (oil exporters) need to find new sources of growth, get more private sector investment – so working on reforms that will facilitate that is important,” Abebe said.

According to the IMF research, Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic growth is anticipated to improve marginally to 4.2% in the upcoming year.

Although Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for almost half of the world’s 20 fastest-growing economies this year, the research issued a warning that greater growth rates were necessary to combat pervasive poverty and inequality.

According to the IMF, as nations grapple with high debt loads and high debt servicing costs, one of the primary barriers to higher growth is a lack of access to inexpensive financing.

The fresh money was expensive, even though some nations were able to sell bonds on global capital markets this year after a two-year break brought on by geopolitical shocks and high interest rates in developed nations like the US.

“The old development finance architecture is not delivering, and, if anything, kind of is in the process of disintegrating,” Abebe said, citing “very problematic levels” of official bilateral funding for poor countries.