Mali helicopters land at Barrick mine and leave with $117 million of gold

Mali’s military government has seized over $117 million worth of gold from Barrick’s Loulo-Gounkoto mine, days after junta leader Colonel Assimi Goïta signed a law allowing himself to stay in power indefinitely.

The seizure took place when state helicopters landed unannounced at the site and removed roughly 35,000 ounces of gold or slightly over one metric tonne. One metric tonne of gold is worth about $106.4 million on Friday, with gold trading at around $3,349 per ounce.

Barrick said on Friday the metal was likely taken for sale by the provisional administrator appointed to oversee the mine. Details remain unclear and the situation is still unfolding, it said in a specially created section of the company’s website.

This is the latest escalation in a bitter dispute between the Canadian mining giant and Mali’s ruling junta, which has controlled the country since a 2021 coup — Goïta’s second in under a year.