Barrick begins talks with Tanzania over Acacia Mining

Acacia Mining's Canadian parent company Barrick Gold Corporation has confirmed that it has begun talks with the Tanzanian government over its five-month-long dispute.

Acacia noted that Barrick management had said on a conference call that “discussions with the Government of Tanzania are just getting underway” with respect to the issues impacting Acacia’s operations in Tanzania.

Earlier this week Acacia Mining was slapped with an astonishing $190bn tax bill from Tanzanian tax authorities in respect of what it said were unpaid tax and penalties from the London-listed company's Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines in the country, which the London-listed company disputes.

The Tanzania Revenue Authority sent a demand for close to $40bn of alleged unpaid taxes and roughly $150bn of penalties and interest owed over what it alleges are under-declared export revenues.

After imposing an export ban in March on Acacia's gold and copper concentrates, June saw the FTSE 250-listed miner accused of operating in the country illegally, with two presidential mining committee reports claimed the company had been understating its level of exports for several years.

Analysts noted that the $40bn tax bill is more than twice what all top five global gold miners combined have paid in taxes since 2000.

Acacia, which said it disputed these assessments, is considering all of its options and rights and will provide a further update in due course, but has already begun paying higher royalites to the Tanzanian government after new mining laws were hurried through parliament.

Barrick, the owner of 63.9% of Acacia's shares, has agreed to compensate the government of Tanzania to try and resolve an export dispute and following talks.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has said Barrick had "repented" and would "repay all the losses that we as a country incurred".