A top mining CEO has reportedly been detained by a military-controlled government overseas.
Resolute Mining Ltd boss Terry Holohan has been detained for questioning by industry and judiciary in Mali, West Africa, on Friday.
Mr Holohan is one of several executives from the mining company to have been placed into custody, according to Australian Federal Police sources.
Resolute Mining Ltd operates on a gold mine in Syama, 300km southeast of the capital Bamako.
The executives were arrested at a hotel in Bamako and taken to a specialised unit set up to tackle corruption, and economic or financial crimes, the judiciary source said.
This is the second time in two months employees of a foreign mining firms have been detained in the country.
Mali’s ruling military junta is believed to be seeking to control the country’s lucrative mining industry.
Mr Holohan has denied any allegations of wrongdoing against him but he has yet to be released.
Chief executive officer of Australian gold miner Resolute Mining Ltd Terry Holohan has been detained in West Africa for questioning by its military-controlled government
Mr Holohan and the others are being detained over suspicions of false evidence and misappropriation of public goods, a Resolute executive told the Daily Telegraph.
Resolute holds 80 percent of a subsidiary that owns the northwestern mine of Syama and the Malian state controls the rest.
The company owns another gold production site across the border in Mako, Senegal, and has exploration operations in Mali, Senegal and Guinea.
Mali’s military junta has vowed to deliver a more equitable distribution of the country’s mining revenues since taking power in 2021.
The country is one of the poorest in the world despite its abundance of gold due to several political, security and economic crises taking place back-to-back since 2012.
Gold makes up a 25 per cent of Mali’s national budget and 75 per cent of it’s export earnings.
Mali’s junta has promised more equitable distribution of profits from the country’s gold mines, one of which Resolute operates out of (Syama gold mines pictured)
Until recently foreign companies have controlled large sections of the industry but the junta has been stamping down on this.
Barrick Gold, a Canadian mining company, had four of its employees detained in Mali for days before they were released in September.
The company said it reached an agreement to pay the state A$81 million in October but the junta disputed this and threatened to pursue the firm.
Resolute Mining has been contacted for comment.
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