I've just listened to Barrick Gold's Q1 2024 Quarterly and have included transcript below. If anyone has the Quartr mobile app, you can listen to it for free (game changer) and hear/read the exact same as to what I am sharing.
Mark Bristow (President and CEO of Barrick):
"While on Mali, we are aware of press speculation originally reported in Africa last year and recently picked up by the Canadian media about the government's so called intention to expropriate the Loulou Gounkoto complex. As we have previously disclosed, we have been in ongoing dialogue with the government of Mali on several matters that impact our operations.
As part of our engagement, the government has recently confirmed to us that they do not intend to expropriate the complex. Like any government, Mali wishes to maximize their benefits from mining, and Barrick remains committed to an equitable sharing of those economic benefits with our host country, while protecting our shareholder rights. Our engagement with the government is continuing on that basis."
Q&A Section:
Greg Barnes (TD):
"So the second question is around Mali. How far apart are you? Because I know the government has approached you with new demands. Is this a wide gap? Or is it something you think you can resolve very quickly? Or is this going to be a situation that drags on for some time?"
Mark Bristow (President and CEO of Barrick):
So I think it's l've spent a lot of time there, and Sebastian Bach, who runs Africa, Middle East, has spent more. So we spent a lot of time engaging. And what happened was like any sort of revolution inverted commas because it was effectively a very uncomfortable situation between the population and the civilian government, which was less than sort of efficient, just to say it politely. And so it drove this change as we've seen before in Mali. And so immediately, the transitional government, which was formed headed by the Junta, was looking for ways to get more out of the mining industry because that's their only lever to pull.
So they did an audit, which again we supported. We're never shy of supporting orders. But the objective of that audit initially was to try and find fault rather than look for opportunities to build a better industry, which is what we all agreed we would do, including the people in authority. Anyway, it took them a long time to release that report, which we have now. So we've been able to respond to it and sit down with the Ministry of Finance at this stage. And more recently, there's a Minister of Mines that is engaging with us.
So that's where we are with the engagement. And we have just to try and explain, Mali's government organs are largely intact. And then you've got the Junta with a sort of executive that they've appointed over arching the normal organs of government. And Mali is quite a bureaucratic structure, a bureaucratic government. And we know all the people, and we've got to know the new people in power.
And so my natural reaction is if you're coming up with claims, you should have a model, a basis on which it is raised. And so you should share it with us. And of course, we've got a model so we can put the 2 together and we can work out who's right and who's wrong or where it is and find a way forward. And as you know, l've always preferred to engage and that's l've already had that conversation.
Should we be looking to find a solution together? Or should we be fighting because we can go to arbitration and get a competent authority, again, as we've done in the past in Mali. And both parties agree it's much more constructive to engage. So that's where we are. And the 2023 Mining Code, which has been approved now and we're waiting for all the regulations, specifically provides for a old order right, to coin a phrase, to accept the 2023 code when the permits come up for renewal.
We haven't come up for renewal. We've got 2 different permits. They're quite far apart as far as times go. But again, like we've done in all our countries, we would prefer to debate it. And we did it with actually the civilian government beforehand and engage ahead of time. And our position is where we find good reason for us to be able to improve things like that were never in our 1991 code because the current convention is now a it's morphed from the 91 code because we've accepted changes as we go. And so that's the debate. And of course, we're dealing with people that are not particularly competent in the mining industry. So and our argument is be careful you don't compromise the benefits to Mali by taking too much and eroding the value of the ore bodies that we've defined. And it's a complicated debate.
And for me to say it's going to be easy, look, we've had some very engaging conversations in Mali over the last 28 years And that's where we are. So and but one thing I can tell you is that in the we've challenged the authority about these rumors. And they have very clearly said to us in writing that they have no intention of expropriating their assets.
So that's and that's all I can tell you at the moment. But it is dynamic. It is a very stressed economy. We are dealing with the all the 5 of the G7 countries have full embassies in the country. Everyone's concerned about taking this country forward, particularly the Western Powers. And definitely the Malian authorities are clear that they want to do something that's good for Mali. They're not trying to sort of take Mali and well, that's certainly what they've told me directly. So I'm sorry I can't give you more granularity, but I'm actually, as I usually do, I'm just giving you lay of the land."
Jackie Preiswolski (BMO):
"Maybe just to dig into that a little bit more, If you could talk about the government in Mali and the stability, I'm just not familiar with the structure of juncture. Like how stable is that? And do you expect any kind of change to the structure of that government over time?"
Mark Bristow (President and CEO of Barrick):
"Well, I think you're asking me to say something that I'm not prepared to say. So this is the 3rd military leadership the country's had. The one was very short lived. The overall intention and by its very self definition, it's defined itself as a transitional government. The intention is moving to that to reintroduce normal civilian government going forward. And as you know, there's a lot of stress in that region.
We've seen Niger move to a military government, so is Guinea, where there are big investments going on in the iron ore part. So that whole region is a challenging environment. And the enemy is ISIS, the radical Muslim movement in the Sahil. So it's very complicated. And none of them are particularly endowed apart from Guinea."
(20min delay)