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Barrick Gold ( GOLD ) has been in dispute with Mali since 2023

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Miner to start standing down staff this week, says

employee

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Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger seek bigger share of revenues

(Adds context, plans to stand down staff, union meeting with

ministry and background from paragraph 2 onwards)

By Giulia Paravicini and Portia Crowe

Jan 15 (Reuters) - Mali's military government is holding

gold seized from Barrick Gold's ( GOLD ) Loulo-Gounkoto mine

site at state-owned Banque Malienne de Solidarite (BMS), two

sources said, as the miner pursues plans to suspend its

operations in the country.

The move escalates an ongoing dispute between Barrick and

Malian authorities, who, like fellow military-led governments in

neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso, are demanding a bigger

share of revenues from Western miners.

Reuters reported on Monday that Malian officials had seized

about three metric tons of gold worth $245 million. Barrick

confirmed the seizure on Tuesday and said it had suspended

operations in response.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Barrick employee in

Mali and a consultant for mining companies in the country said

the gold was now being stored at BMS.

In a Jan. 2 order seen by Reuters, judge Boubacar Moussa

Diarra ordered the seizure of the gold and its storage in the

Banque de Developpement du Mali (BDM) in the capital Bamako.

But the two sources said BDM had said it could not securely

hold that amount of gold and therefore the gold was placed with

BMS.

Malian authorities have not responded to requests for

comment on the seizure of the gold or Barrick's suspension of

operations.

Barrick, which employs around 8,000 people in Mali, will

furlough expatriate staff by the end of this week and plans to

begin furloughing local staff from next week, the employee told

Reuters.

Some of the expatriate employees will be relocated to other

Barrick mines, others have been told not to return to Mali from

leave, the person said.

A skeleton crew of key maintenance, security and emergency

workers will stay on, both sources said.

The suspension pressures both sides. Loulo-Gounkoto accounts

for around 14% of Barrick's 2025 estimated gold output, while

union representatives have spoken with the mines ministry to

voice their concern about job losses, the employee said.

Both sides should consider the "dire social consequences of

suspending operations, which would jeopardise the prospects of

over 8,000 workers and their families," a mining union group

said in a statement last week.

Gold is also Mali's top foreign currency earner, accounting

for more than 80% of total exports in 2023.