Earlier this month, soldiers swooped by helicopter into a vast mining complex in western Mali and made away with three tonnes of gold — all done on the orders of the military government.
The confiscation at the Loulo-Gounkoto complex, majority owned by a Canadian firm, is one of the most extraordinary twists in a long-running confrontation waged by juntas in Africa’s volatile Sahel region against Western mining firms.
The militaries who took power in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in recent years have stepped up pressure on foreign firms — promising greater sovereignty and a fairer distribution of revenue from the lucrative mining sector.
After weeks of escalating tension with Canadian company Barrick Gold, Malian authorities carried out an order in mid-January to seize gold stocks at Loulo-Gounkoto –- one of the world’s largest gold complexes.
Barrick Gold owns 80 percent of Loulo-Gounkoto, with Mali retaining the rest.
The soldiers who arrived unannounced by helicopter “confiscated the phones of those who tried to film them”, one miner told AFP, asking for anonymity due to the sensitive subject.
The only images of the operation were shared covertly.
He said when resurfaced from the mine, colleagues showed him a photo of two helicopters about to carry the gold back to a bank in the capital Bamako.
The gold’s value is estimated between $260 and $290 million, according to market data and experts, an immense sum for one of the poorest countries in the world.
Authorities are demanding hundreds of millions of dollars in arrears from Barrick Gold and in November detained four of the company’s Malian employees.
In the same month, they arrested the CEO and two employees of Australian firm Resolute Mining, before releasing them after the company struck a $160 million deal with the government.
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