Tausi Insider

Two law firms have filed suit against Barrick Gold Corp. in Ontario Superior Court on behalf of 21 Tanzanians who allege that they or their family members were killed, injured or tortured by police guarding a Barrick gold mine. The case, filed on Wednesday morning, is the first to be pursued against Barrick in Canadian courts for alleged human rights violations at its mines abroad. It follows a landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 2020 that allowed a Vancouver-based mining company to be sued in British Columbia for alleged abuses in Eritrea. The Tanzanian plaintiffs, Indigenous Kurya villagers who live in communities around Barrick’s North Mara gold mine in northern Tanzania, are accusing the police of five deaths, five injuries and five incidents of torture. They say Barrick is liable because the police are paid and equipped by Barrick under a formal agreement between the company and the Tanzanian Police Force. Barrick says it does not supervise or control the police who patr...

Pakistan’s Supreme Court endorsed on Friday a settlement for Barrick Gold ABX-T to resume mining at the Reko Diq project, one of the world’s largest underdeveloped sites of copper and gold deposits, it said in an order. The endorsement was a condition of the settlement for Barrick to resume work on the project in the southwestern province of Balochistan, bordering Afghanistan and Iran, in which it will invest $10 billion. Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, the head of a five-judge panel, read out the operative part of the brief order in court. “The agreements … have not been found by us to be unconstitutional or illegal on the parameters and grounds spelt out,” read the order seen by Reuters. President Arif Alvi had asked the court to review the deal. In an out of court agreement this year, Barrick Gold ended a long-running dispute with Pakistan, and agreed to restart development. Under the deal, the company withdrew its case in an international arbitration court, which had slapped a pe...

The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) has been sued by a group of Tanzanians for certifying gold sold by Barrick Gold Corp. ABX-T as “responsibly sourced”, with claimants alleging it is anything but. The suit brought against the LBMA is by the families of two Tanzanian nationals who were allegedly killed at Barrick’s North Mara gold mine in 2019, after a confrontation between the men, who had trespassed into the mine in search of wasted gold, and police. Leigh Day, the law firm acting for the Tanzanians, said in a legal briefing that LBMA breached its duty by certifying the gold sold by Barrick as responsibly sourced, “despite a systematic pattern of serious human rights abuses at North Mara spanning for many years.” Simon Rostron, a spokesperson for LBMA, wrote in an e-mail to Tausi Insider that the claim is baseless. “LBMA’s Good Delivery List operates on transparent and well-published principles that all refiners must follow. Failure to comply with the LBMA rules results ei...

Barrick Gold Corp. ABX-T has signed joint venture agreements with Saudi Arabian mining company Ma’aden for two prospective exploration projects in Saudi Arabia. Terms of the agreements that will grow the company’s copper base in the country were not immediately available. The Toronto-based miner says the deal expands its partnership with Ma’aden and opens up potential co-operation with the neighbouring Jabal Sayid copper mine, which is a 50-50 joint venture between the two companies. Barrick says the new deals include the Jabal Sayid South and Umm Ad Damar license areas. Barrick CEO Mark Bristow says Barrick is committed to broadening its partnership with Ma’aden in the region. Barrick says copper production at Jabal Sayid increased from 110 million pounds in 2018 to 152 million pounds per year in 2021 as a result of improved mining performance and process plant optimization. https://www.tausiinsider.com/barrick-gold-signs-joint-venture-deals-for-two-projects-with-saudi-company/...

The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) has been sued by a group of Tanzanians for certifying gold sold by Barrick Gold Corp. ABX-T as “responsibly sourced”, with claimants alleging it is anything but. The suit brought against the LBMA is by the families of two Tanzanian nationals who were allegedly killed at Barrick’s North Mara gold mine in 2019, after a confrontation between the men, who had trespassed into the mine in search of wasted gold, and police. Leigh Day, the law firm acting for the Tanzanians, said in a legal briefing that LBMA breached its duty by certifying the gold sold by Barrick as responsibly sourced, “despite a systematic pattern of serious human rights abuses at North Mara spanning for many years.” Simon Rostron, a spokesperson for LBMA, wrote in an e-mail to Tausi Insider that the claim is baseless. “LBMA’s Good Delivery List operates on transparent and well-published principles that all refiners must follow. Failure to comply with the LBMA rules results ei...