ONTARIO’S Superior Court on Tuesday dismissed a case against Barrick Gold brought by Tanzanian residents on security incidents in the country, as the courts lacked jurisdiction to consider the claims, the miner said in a statement.
A group of 21 Tanzanian nationals had filed a lawsuit in Canada in November 2022, alleging that Barrick was complicit in extrajudicial killings by police guarding its North Mara mine. The events date back to 2006 when Barrick first owned the mine.
Barrick owns a majority stake in North Mara Gold Mine Limited, located in northwest Tanzania, since 2019.
The lawsuit claimed that the miner “had effective and practical control” over Tanzanian police stationed at the mine.
Barrick said on Tuesday the case should not have been brought in Canada.
In June, the miner wrote to the United Nations Human Rights Council saying the allegations were “misdirected, unfounded” and “lacked substance”.
“The plaintiffs in this case are engaging in a classic case of forum-shopping: deliberately seeking to implicate Barrick in a case in Ontario, where the only viable defendants would be North Mara Gold Mine Limited (NMGML) and the Tanzanian Police Force (TPF),” a spokesman for Barrick said in October when the matter came before the court.