Tanzania has renewed Barrick Mining’s (TSX: ABX; NYSE: B) licences for the North Mara gold mine for 15 years, securing its operating tenure as the company weighs an expansion.
North Mara is a combined open-pit and underground operation about 540 km northwest of Dodoma and 20 km south of the Kenyan border. Barrick owns 84% and Tanzania holds the remaining 16%. The mine produced 249,000 attributable oz. last year.
“Relations at North Mara mine have strengthened since Barrick took over,” Tarime district commissioner Maj. Edward Gowele said. “Residents now really view the mine as a community partner.”
North Mara’s two special mining licences were last renewed for 15 years in 2012. The latest approval removes that separate tenure risk, leaving Barrick to reverse a sharp first-half production decline, meet North Mara’s attributable 2026 guidance of 200,000 to 230,000 oz. and decide whether to expand the North Mara-Bulyanhulu complex.
Barrick’s Toronto-traded shares were down 1% at $56.84 (US$39.87) apiece by mid-Monday, after tracking 20% higher over the past 12 months. Bids have tested $42.62 and $74.00 over the same period.
Production test
Attributable output fell 47% to 68,000 oz. in the first half from 129,000 oz. a year earlier. All-in sustaining costs rose 79% to US$2,283 per oz. from US$1,272 per ounce. Barrick cited lower grades at North Mara among the factors raising company-wide second-quarter costs.
Barrick maintained North Mara’s guidance at 200,000 to 230,000 oz. and all-in sustaining costs of US$1,520-US$1,680 per oz. The mine must produce 132,000 to 162,000 oz. in the second half to reach that range.
North Mara output is expected to rise next year. Barrick is studying upgrades to remove processing bottlenecks and expand the North Mara-Bulyanhulu complex.
North Mara held attributable proven and probable reserves of 43 million tonnes grading 2.32 grams gold per tonne for 3.2 million oz. at the end of 2025, Barrick reported.
State reset
Barrick bought the 36% of Acacia Mining it didn’t already own in September 2019 and took direct control of North Mara. Under then-CEO Mark Bristow, it reached a settlement with Tanzania the following month and formalized it in January 2020, agreeing to pay $300 million, give the state a 16% free-carried interest in the mines and split their economic benefits equally.
The accord created Twiga Minerals to manage North Mara and Bulyanhulu. Since 2019, Barrick says its Tanzanian operations have contributed about $5.3 billion to the country, including $1.2 billion last year.
LBMA trial
The renewal comes as the London Bullion Market Association prepares for a six-week High Court trial beginning Wednesday over the deaths of two 23-year-old artisanal miners at North Mara in 2019. Their families allege Tanzanian police, private guards or both killed the men in separate incidents that July and December.
Barrick took operational control in September, between the incidents. It isn’t a defendant in the London case and declined to comment to Reuters, the news outlet reported Monday.
The claim alleges the LBMA negligently kept India-based refiner MMTC-PAMP that processed North Mara gold on its ‘good delivery list’ despite reports of abuses at the mine. The list determines which refiners’ bars are accepted in London’s wholesale bullion market.
The LBMA denies liability, saying it certifies refiners rather than mines and had no control over North Mara or Tanzanian police.
The association held about £1.4 million ($1.8 million) in reserves at the end of 2025 and could face £3 million in claimants’ legal costs before damages if it loses, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
A ruling holding the LBMA responsible could set a precedent for compensation over abuses at supplying mines and threaten its role in global gold trading, John Meyer, a mining analyst at SP Angel, said in a note on Monday. The court has stayed another 26 claims and five potential claims until after the trial, according to the LBMA.
