Australian gold miner to pay Mali $160m after employees detained

An Australian gold mining company has agreed to pay US$160m (£126m) to Mali's government, after the west African country's junta detained its chief executive and two other employees.

- Rachel Savage

Resolute Mining's chief executive, Terence Holohan, and the two other employees were detained on 8 November in Mali's capital Bamako, at the end of a meeting with government officials over tax and other state claims that the miner had previously said were "unsubstantiated".

Resolute, based in Perth, said in a stock market announcement yesterday that it had already paid Mali $80m out of its $157m cash reserves, and would pay another $80m in the coming months.