A senior mining CEO has reportedly been detained by a military-controlled government abroad.
Resolute Mining Ltd boss Terry Holohan was detained for questioning by industry and the judiciary in Mali, West Africa, on Friday.
Mr. Holohan is one of Several directors of the mining company have been taken into custody, according to Australian Federal Police sources.
Resolute Mining Ltd operates a gold mine in Syama, 300 kilometers southeast of the capital, Bamako.
The executives were detained in a hotel in Bamako and transferred to a specialized unit created to fight corruption and economic or financial crimes, the judicial source stated.
This is the second time in two months that employees of foreign mining companies have been detained in the country.
Mali’s ruling military junta is believed to be seeking control of the country’s lucrative mining industry.
Holohan has denied any allegations of wrongdoing against him, but has not yet been released.
The chief executive of Australian gold miner Resolute Mining Ltd, Terry Holohan, has been detained in West Africa for questioning by his military-controlled government.
Mr. Holohan and the others are being held on suspicion of False evidence and misappropriation of public assets, a determined executive he told the Daily Telegraph.
Resolute owns 80 percent of a subsidiary that owns the northwestern Syama mine 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 promised to achieve 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, economic and security crises that have occurred consecutively since 2012.
Gold compensates 25 percent of Mali’s national budget and 75 percent of its export earnings.
Mali’s junta has promised a more equitable distribution of profits from the country’s gold mines, one of which Resolute operates (Syama gold mines pictured)
Until recently, foreign companies have controlled large swaths of the industry, but the junta has been cracking down on this.
Barrick Gold, a Canadian mining company, arrested four of its employees in Mali for days before his release in September.
The company said it reached an agreement to pay the State 81 million Australian dollars in October, but the board questioned this and threatened to go after the company.
Resolute Mining has been contacted for comment.