Acacia Mining plc (formerly African Barrick Gold plc) is Tanzania's largest gold producer and one of the five largest gold producers in Africa. It has four mines, all located in Northwest Tanzania, and several exploration projects at various stages of development in Tanzania and Kenya. It has a high-quality asset base, solid growth opportunities and a clear strategy of: * driving operating efficiencies to optimise production from our existing asset base; * growing through near mine expansion and development of advanced-stage projects; and * organic greenfield growth and acquisitions in Africa.

Links...
Company Web Sitehttp://www.acaciamining.com/

Company Calendar http://www.acaciamining.com/investors/financial-calendar.aspx

Former Thread as African Barrick Gold http://www.moneyam.com/InvestorsRoom/posts.php?tid=14880#lastread thanks to Harry for giving go ahead to swap to new name.

The Tanzanian government are made up of crooks

really? ..... you amaze me, for i thought all these african countries were now as pure as the driven snow

You are just as sarcastic as ever... LOL

an outrageous slur

Very bad news for Acacia... looks like no light at the end of the tunnel.

Acacia could lose Tanzania mines

The second Tanzanian investigative committee has said Acacia Mining (LN:ACA) has no legal right to be operating in the country and owes the country tens of billions of US dollars in taxes and royalties.

President John Magufuli launched two committees in March at the same time as banning gold and copper concentrate exports.

The first committee reported last month and said Acacia was exporting 10 times more gold than it declared, which the miner said would make its Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi gold mines the biggest in the world.

Magufuli said the second committee had found something even more damaging.

“Acacia Gold Mining is operating in the country illegally because it has not been registered by the Business and Registration Licensing Agency,” he said according to The Citizen newspaper.

From the numbers given by Acacia – that it owes Tanzania tens of billions of dollars – it seems the second committee has followed on from the first committee’s workings.

That committee checked 277 containers bound for shipping that were holding gold and copper concentrate and said there was 250,000 ounces of gold in them, compared with Acacia’s stated 26,000oz.

The new report said Acacia could lose control of its three mines in the country, including North Mara.

“Since Acacia Mining plc has no registration or legal recognition in Tanzania, it does not qualify for a licence, to dig or to do business in mining,” a translation of the Swahili report (see attachment) said.

The committee also said it had underpaid taxes for years, according to an Acacia press release.

“The second committee has alleged that Acacia has under-declared revenues and tax payments over a number of years by tens of billions of US dollars,” the company said.

“As a result, it has made a series of recommendations including the payment of outstanding taxes and royalties, re-negotiation of large-scale mineral development agreements, government ownership in the mines, and the continuation of the export ban.”

“Acacia strongly refutes these new unfounded accusations. We have always conducted our business to the highest standards and operated in full compliance with Tanzanian law.”

The concentrate export ban in March blocked hundreds of concentrate containers leaving Tanzania and the miner has since built up major stockpiles.

It has continued to export gold doré but cash supplies have been hit as it loses US$1 million a day in revenue and is spending around $15 million a month extra because of the ban, CEO Brad Gordon said earlier this month.

The possibility of suspending Bulyanhulu, as Gordon floated, would be rendered moot if the government accepts the committees finding and decides Acacia has no right to continue mining.

told you so!

Maybe Acacia should just seek forgiveness and the sp would soon rise...


Acacia Mining has been accused by the Tanzanian government of operating in the country illegally. An audit ordered by President John Magufuli in March found that Acacia had been conducting business in Tanzania “contrary to the law,” said Nehemiah Osoro, chairman of a committee of academics, lawyers and economists that conducted the probe.

“We should summon them and demand that they pay us back our money,” Magufuli said after receiving the committee’s report. “If they accept that they stole from us and seek forgiveness in front of God and the angels and all Tanzanians and enter into negotiations, we are ready to do business.”

The audit has covered mineral exports over the past 19 years. The accusation is the latest sign of deteriorating relations between Acacia and the country where it mines all its gold. Last month, a Tanzanian presidential committee investigating the export of gold and copper concentrates, said that Acacia hasn’t fully declared all the minerals contained in its concentrate and directed that investigations into the concentrates be carried out.

The company has in several incidents announced that it was suffering loss for not exporting the concentrates, and added that it was losing $1 million a day because of a surprise ban on copper and gold concentrate exports, which has been levied by President John Magufuli and the Tanzanian government.

Acacia said it revealed everything of commercial value that it produces and pays all appropriate royalties and taxes.

Labour concerns

Meanwhile, the miner has also confirmed that it is in the process of retrenching its workers, mostly in the security section.
This comes in the wake of an announcement by the National Union for Mines and Energy Workers of Tanzania secretary, Nicodemus Kajungu, in a forum organised by opposition party ACT Wazalendo that Acacia was planning to lay off at least 400 workers.

Acacia communications and public relations manager Nectar Foya said in an email that the company would be outsourcing its security function at all three of its mines – North Mara, Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi, to a specialist security provider.

Foya did not say the actual number of workers to be retrenched, but she said consultations with employees were on-going.

“We have decided to outsource our security staff, because we believe that by doing so our people and assets will be protected in the best possible way,” she said.

Acacia Mining, one of the largest gold producers in Africa, will be forced to close its flagship mine in Tanzania unless the government lifts an export ban that has seen the company chew through almost half its cash pile in the past six months.

The FTSE 250 company, which is majority owned by Barrick Gold, has been involved in a bitter dispute with Tanzania’s President John Magufuli since he banned exports of unprocessed ores in March as part of a plan to promote the development of domestic smelting.

Brad Gordon, Acacia’s chief executive, said on Friday that the company would be “prudent” to mothball the Bulyanhulu mine if negotiations with the east Africa nation had not been concluded by the end of September.

“We have to protect our cash pile,” Mr Gordon said as the company released interim results.

Tanzania has accused Acacia, one of the country’s largest private employers, of operating illegally and failing to pay billions of dollars of taxes; the company has denied the charges.

In June, Tanzania agreed to start discussions with Barrick to try and settle the dispute, which has wiped £1bn off Acacia’s market value over the past six months.

Mr Gordon said he was disappointed not to be involved in the negotiations with the government but was confident of a positive outcome because both sides had too much to lose.

“We could be sitting here at the end of the year in a very different space,” he said.

Friday’s results showed Acacia’s cash position had fallen to $176m at the end of June, down from $318m at the beginning of the year, because it has been unable to sell 127,000 ounces of gold concentrate, or powder.

In the six months to June, revenue fell 22 per cent to $391.7m, while pre-tax profits were down just 2 per cent to $99.5m supported by “strong cost discipline”. Acacia did not declare an interim dividend because of the export ban.

“While the cash reduction is frightening, it is a natural reflection of the $1m a day that is being tied up in inventories while the export ban remains in place,” said Hunter Hillcoat, analyst at Investec Securities.

Acacia has invested more than $4bn in Tanzania over the past 20 years and operates three mines in the country. Bulyanhulu has been hit hardest by the export ban because almost half of its output is gold concentrate and it produces fewer valuable by-products such as copper.

Mr Gordon dismissed reports that two senior Acacia executives had been detained at an airport in Tanzania this week but said some of the company’s international contractors had faced difficulties getting work and residency permits.

Shares in Acacia fell 16 per cent, to a 17-month low of 234.5p on Friday. The shares are down 50 per cent since March and the company’s market value now stands below £1bn.

Things aren’t getting any easier for Acacia Mining, the FTSE 250 gold miner.

Shares in the company, which has been locked in a bitter dispute with the Tanzanian government that has left it unable to make any exports from its flagship mine, dropped another 10 per cent on Monday after a series of analyst downgrades.

JP Morgan, Citigroup and Jefferies all cut their target price after the company warned that it will be forced to close its flagship mine if it can’t reach a solution with the Tanzanian government soon.

Acacia’s shares were down at 209p, and have now fallen 60% since the dispute began in March.

Analysts at Citi, which already had a sell recommendation on the stock, said Acacia had done a good job of controlling costs and made positive progress with exploring for new projects, but said “the market is unlikely to appreciate the underlying business till a stable regulatory environment is established”.

Acacia’s majority owner Barrick Gold has been in discussions to try and settle the dispute with Tanzania, but Citi’s analysts said negotiations are likely to be “complex and time consuming”.

They added that “the level of uncertainty around timing and a wide degree of potential outcomes leave too much risk on the table under worst case scenarios”, despite the amount the shares have fallen already.

In a further setback for the company, human rights groups over the weekend accused Acacia of taking a “militarised” approach to guarding its assets in Tanzania, with a number of people shot at or near its North Mara gold mine.

Acacia Mining has been sent a tax bill from the Tanzanian authorities totalling around $190bn for unpaid tax and penalties from its Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines in the country, which the London-listed company disputes. The Tanzania Revenue Authority sent a demand for $154bn and $36bn to Bulyanhulu Gold Mine Limited and Pangea Minerals Limited, the holding companies for the two mines, in reference to alleged under-declared export revenues.

The TRA's assessments claim a total of close to $40bn of alleged unpaid taxes and roughly $150bn of penalties and interest owed. Analysts noted that the $40bn tax bill is more than twice what all top five global gold miners combined have paid in taxes since 2000.

Acacia, which said it disputed these assessments, is considering all of its options and rights and will provide a further update in due course. On 12 June, FTSE 250-listed was accused on by the government of operating in the country illegally, following two presidential mining committee reports that alleged the company had been understating its level of exports for several years to avoid "tens of billions of US dollars".

Acacia said on Monday that it "refutes each set of findings and re-iterates that it has fully declared all revenues" and is still yet to receive copies of the reports issued by either of the presidential committees. Both subsidiaries, BGML and PML, have already referred these allegations to international arbitration.

"The US$40bn tax bill is more than twice what all top five global gold miners combined have paid in taxes since 2000," said an astonished Investec on Tuesday morning, which had previously expressed concern over the behaviour and intent of the Tanzanian. "Back of mind was a view that sense would prevail, given parent Barrick appeared to have laid some grounds for rational discussions. However, this looks increasingly difficult to envisage."

The report from the second committee set up by Tanzanian President John Magufuli following the imposition of an export ban in March, accused the company of operating outside proper Tanzanian law and even of not being properly licensed to operate in the country.

Tanzania's parliament then voted through three new mining industry bills earlier, with Acacia earlier this month confirming parts of the legislation are now in force and being applied by Tanzanian authorities. This has seen the company begin paying higher royalties to the Tanzanian government for its production of gold and copper of 6%, up from 4%, plus a further 1% clearing fee on exports.

Acacia's shares had already been under extra pressure on Monday on news that it could soon face a lawsuit in the UK from relatives of people who died at one of its mines in the east African country. Acacia, said newspaper reports, could soon face compensation claims from a group being represented by law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn.

Shares in the company tanked 25% by the close on Monday to 184.5p, their lowest since late 2015, and on Tuesday fell a further 9% to 165.3p.

Acacia chops back at Bulyanhulu as Tanzanian impasse continues
By Brendan Ryan - September 4, 2017

Acacia Mining is to shut down underground operations at its Bulyanhulu gold mine in Tanzania which will drop group annual gold production by 100,000oz and cause “a significant reduction in the workforce from the current 1,200 employees and 800 contractor roles.”

The company is also cutting back on capital expenditure and assessing possible reductions in its exploration projects including expansionary drilling at North Mara and its greenfields exploration programme.

The steps were announced today by CEO Brad Gordon as a result of the impasse between the group and the government of Tanzania over the gold/copper export ban which was imposed on March 3 this year affecting some 35% of production from Acacia’s three operating mines in the country.

According to the statement from Acacia, “discussions between Barrick (Acacia’s controlling shareholder) and the Government of Tanzania are on-going. Acacia continues to support the discussions and still believes that a negotiated resolution is the best outcome for all stakeholders.”

Acacia said the ban had so far led to a build-up of about in $265m in concentrate inventory in Tanzania while the associated revenue loss – plus an outflow of $65m of “indirect taxes and costs from other changes to the operating environment” – had resulted in a cash outflow of about $210m so far during 2017.

The company added the concentrate export ban combined with the deterioration of the operating environment had “led to a negative cash flow of approximately $15m per month at the mine and thus has made ordinary course operations at Bulyanhulu unsustainable.”

Acacia said underground activity “will cease” and the processing of underground ore will end within four weeks. Retreatment of tailings – which is currently suspended because of drought conditions in northern Tanzania – should recommence in October assuming adequate rainfall is received.

The company said the costs of moving to this “reduced operational state” would include one-off expenses of $20m – $25m plus about $35m – $40m from “the natural unwinding of around two months’ worth of working capital.”

Bulyanhulu will also incur an average of $5m per month of operating cash outflows over the next three months before reaching a steady state of around $3m per month.

Acacia said that the Buzwagi mine – which is also affected by the concentrate ban – will continue to operate as normal “due to its remaining short life and lower impact of the changes in the operating environment on the company’s cash outflows.”

Acacia added it expected annual production to be “in the order of 100,000oz lower than the bottom of the previous guidance range of 850,000oz – 900,000oz. Previous AISC (all-in sustaining cost) guidance of between $880 -920 per ounce sold remains unchanged due to the impact of on-going cost saving initiatives and a further reduction in capital expenditure guidance to approximately $160m “

Acacia expected that “the group will be able to return to a positive cash generation in early 2018” but added that it is “evaluating further steps to reduce cash outflows and protect its balance sheet with the cash balance at the end of August 2017 amounting to $107m with $71m of debt.”

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MoneyAM has been unable to fix the fault for over 8 weeks now but are still charging full price for their Level 2

Tanzania's President takes leaf out of Trump's playbook with wall plans

Upping the ante in the country's battle with international mining companies, Tanzania's President John Magufuli has ordered a wall to be built around its tanzanite mines to "control illegal mining and trading activities".
Magufuli, nicknamed 'the Bulldozer' for his no-nonsense style, said the army will construct a wall around the 15 square-kilometre mine site to curb smuggling of the rare gemstone, the local Citizen newspaper reported.
The President, who visited the area after a parliamentary probe into tanzanite mining industry, said the findings "shows how much the resource benefit a few".
The wall will come complete with cameras and checkpoints, with statement from the presidency saying that “all tanzanite gemstones will be controlled and will pass through one gate".
Tanzania’s central bank has been ordered by Magufuli to take part in the tanzanite buying trade, Reuters reported.
"President John 'The Bulldozer' Magufuli is apparently taking a leaf out of President Trump’s playbook, reportedly ordering the military to build walls around the country’s tanzanite mines," said analyst Yuen Low at Shore Capital.
Earlier this month, the Tanzanian government seized a 71.7k carat parcel from Petra Diamonds’ Williamson mine, which been registered as containing 14kg worth 33bn shillings but which the government apparently alleged contained nearly 30kg worth 65bn shillings.
Petra pointed out that the government has “complete oversight” of diamonds produced at the mine, which are “physically controlled by a number of different government representatives in conjunction with Petra” from point of recovery to point of sale.
ShoreCap's Low noted that the parcel had yet to be released and Petra still to be officially apprised of the grounds for the Tanzanian government’s action.
"We noted that if the developments at Acacia can be taken as a precedent, Petra could be waiting a very long time – as far as we are aware, Acacia is still waiting for reports that, in our view, should have in the interests of transparency been made available to it (and the public at large) in May 2017.
"We suspect that release of the Acacia and Petra reports would likely lead to a significant loss of face for President Magufuli, and we do not believe he is the sort of person to tolerate such a thing, so we would not be surprised if they never saw the light of day."

Tanzanian paper shut down for two years for ‘insulting’ President John Magufuli

Nairobi — An independent Tanzanian newspaper has been suspended for two years, a government spokesperson said on Tuesday, accusing the publication of sedition and endangering national security.

The critical Mwanahalisi newspaper was shut after publishing a letter on Monday from a reader containing "insults" against President John Magufuli and his government, said spokesperson Hassan Abbasi.

Abbasi said the paper had received several warnings. The daily has been shuttered on several occasions in the past — for three months in 2008 and then three years between 2012 and 2015.

The offending letter said that Magufuli "claims to be a patriot but questions the patriotism of anyone who opposes him. This is hypocritical".

Mocking Magufuli’s regular calls for people to pray for him, the article asks if one should not rather pray for opposition legislator Tundu Lissu, who was shot and injured earlier in September. His party, Chadema, has accused the government of being involved in the attack.

Abbasi said the letter was the latest in a long line of violations of "ethics [and] principles of the journalistic profession by the publication of false, seditious articles that endanger national security".

"Government is suspending printing and publication of the Mwanahalisi newspaper for 24 months," Abbasi said.

The ban comes just three months after the weekly Mawio was suspended for two years for linking two former presidents to dubious mining contracts.

Since his October election Magufuli has shut down newspapers, banned opposition rallies, switched off live broadcasts of parliamentary sessions and used a draconian "cyber crimes" law to jail critics.

His government is also increasingly targeting the gay community.

"This suspension is absolutely excessive and is yet another example of the repression that is being experienced by Tanzanian media," said Clea Kahn-Sriber of Reporters Without Borders.