THE Barrick executive responsible for negotiating a dispute between the Tanzanian government and Acacia Mining, in which Barrick has a 63.9% stake, has left the company following its merger with Randgold Resources, said Bloomberg News.
Citing Andy Lloyd, a spokesman at Barrick, Bloomberg News said the role of negotiating the dispute now lay with Willem Jacobs, a Randgold Resources manager who will report directly to Barrick’s proposed CEO, Mark Bristow.
Richard Williams, who previously served as Barrick’s chief of staff and later COO, told the newswire that he had handed over the negotiations with the Tanzanians by mutual agreement. “The new leadership are well capable of carrying it across,” Williams told Bloomberg News.
In 2017, Acacia was hit with a $190bn tax bill by the Tanzanian government and exports of its gold in concentrate were banned. Barrick executive chairman, John Thornton, stepped in that year to negotiate a tentative deal before assigning Williams to handle negotiations full-time but the dispute has remained unresolved.
