LONDON (Reuters) - African Barrick Gold Plc , the Tanzania-focused subsidiary of Canadian gold company Barrick Gold Corp on Thursday dismissed accusations of illegal payments made to Tanzanian officials, where it operates the North Mara mine.
"Both
African Barrick Gold (ABG) and Barrick Gold Corporation are committed
to ethical and transparent business practices in compliance with the
law," African Barrick said in response to a Wall Street Journal article
that reported accusations the gold miner had paid $400,000 in cash to
bribe Tanzanian government officials and consultants responsible for
valuing the land.
African Barrick said it
provides "modest financial support" to government officials taking part
in valuing land that it might wish to acquire, in line with standard
rates provided by the government.
"Cash is
often the only viable method of payment because in many regions of the
country, banking infrastructure and services are extremely limited, or
sometimes not available at all," it said.
"All such payments are carefully documented, monitored and controlled."
African
Barrick also said it hired a U.S. law firm to review payments made to
the Land Task Force which concluded that it has acted appropriately in
all instances, under Tanzanian, U.S., and U.K. law.
Barrick Gold reduced its stake in African Barrick to around 64 percent in March from 74 percent before. (REUTERS)
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