Resolute Mining to pay Mali govt $160m after CEO, execs detained

Australia’s Resolute Mining, whose executives have been detained in Mali over a tax row, said it had agreed to pay $160m as part of a deal to free them.

The Perth-based miner said it had paid an initial $80m to Mali's government from existing cash reserves “with future payments of approximately $80m to be made in the coming months from existing liquidity sources”.

Malian authorities are currently holding Resolute’s chief executive and two other executives in the nation's capital Bamako.

Resolute said it was working with the government on the “remaining procedural steps for the release of the three employees”.

“They remain safe and well and continue to receive support on the ground from the UK and International embassies and consulates,” Resolute said in a statement.

Operations on site continued as normal and had not been impacted, it added.

The trio had travelled to Mali for talks with mining and tax authorities regarding Resolute's "in-country business practices, and to progress open claims made against Resolute, which the company maintains are unsubstantiated".

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com