Acacia, Tanzania dispute intensifies over employee detention

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Barrick Gold’s majority-owned African business segment Acacia Mining has reported that a senior international employee of its subsidiary Pangea Minerals has been detained by Tanzania authorities.

The official was prevented from leaving Tanzania on Friday morning and had his passport confiscated at the Dar-es-Salaam airport for a while, before legal intervention resulted in the official’s release and the return of his passport.

Acacia is locked in a bitter dispute with the Tanzanian government after the government summarily decreed a ban on concentrate shipments out of the country, alleging Acacia has been under-declaring the value of minerals in concentrate being shipped to smelters.

Acacia commented that this incident was a culmination of increased levels of pressure from government agencies on Acacia employees in the past 48 hours.

Acacia advised that it was working with its legal advisers and relevant authorities to support its employees.

Acacia stressed that it operates in full compliance with Tanzanian law, has declared everything of commercial value that it has produced and has paid all appropriate royalties and taxes.

The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) slapped Acacia’s two operating subsidiaries in Tanzania with adjusted tax assessments totalling nearly $200-billion in alleged unpaid taxes, penalties and interest owed.

This was the latest blow to the operator, whose first-half performance this year was severely impacted by the government’s blunt export ban on concentrate exports from the Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines.

Acacia said on Monday that Bulyanhulu Gold Mine (BGML) and Pangea Minerals (PML), the respective owners and operators of the Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines, have received a series of notices of adjusted assessment from the TRA for historical corporate income tax, covering 2000 to 2017 for BMGL and 2007 to 2017 for PML.