North Mara Mine, Tanzania/Barrick Private Security vehicle after being stoned by mine intruders.David Chancellor/INSTITUTE
A subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corp. ABX-T is losing millions of dollars as a result of “illegal and dangerous incursions” by Tanzanian villagers who are often armed with spears and machetes, the company says.
Affidavits and other evidence from Barrick managers, disclosed for a recent Ontario court action and seen by The Globe and Mail, provide a rare glimpse of the violence that erupts regularly between villagers and police around the company’s North Mara gold mine in Tanzania.
Officials and lawyers for Toronto-based Barrick and its North Mara subsidiary describe the mine as a site of routine conflict, requiring an extensive police presence in the villages surrounding it.
They also disclosed details of an agreement under which Barrick’s subsidiary pays a daily fee to more than 150 Tanzanian police officers to provide security in areas as far as 20 kilometres from the company’s operations.
Apolinary Lyambiko, general manager of the North Mara mine, gave the most vivid description of the conflicts around the mine. “The mine is targeted regularly by trespassers who illegally invade the mine site seeking to steal gold-bearing rock and other property, including fuel and equipment,” he said in an affidavit.
“Trespassers can be dangerous and violent,” Mr. Lyambiko said. “They are frequently armed with machetes, spears, slingshots, rocks, metal cutters and/or hammers. They often storm the mine together in groups.”
Scores of villagers have been killed in conflicts around the North Mara mine over the past decade, including some allegedly slain by gunshots from the police. Since 2019, however, the company has been successful in reducing the number of “security incidents” at the mine, Mr. Lyambiko said.
The case in Ontario Superior Court was launched by Tanzanian villagers, alleging that they or their family members were killed, injured or tortured by local police who are paid and equipped by Barrick’s subsidiary. The case was dismissed on Nov. 26 by Justice Edward Morgan, who ruled that it should be heard in Tanzania. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that an appeal of the Ontario ruling is being considered.
Two earlier cases, based on similar allegations at North Mara, were filed in courts in Britain, where a previous Barrick subsidiary had been publicly listed. Barrick and its subsidiaries settled the cases out of court in 2015 and 2024 without admitting any liability.
“This mine site, because of the intruders, is effectively an armed encampment,” Barrick lawyer Kent Thomson told the Ontario court at an October hearing.
“It is surrounded by a 14-foot wall with barbed wire on the top of it, and people scale it, hundreds at a time or dozens at a time, armed with machetes and spears and so on in the dark of night,” he said.
Mr. Lyambiko, in his affidavit, said the trespassers are often part of “local criminal syndicates.” They frequently make dangerous incursions into the pits and underground mine, he said.
“Illegal incursions at North Mara have resulted in millions of dollars of loss or damage, including in the form of lost ore, lost fuel and other supplies, and damage to equipment that is needed to carry on operations at the mine.”
In a number of incidents, trespassers have climbed into active mining areas and detonated live explosives in an effort to steal gold-bearing rock, he said.
Barrick, in the Ontario court case, argued that it does not control or direct the Tanzanian police. It confirmed, however, that it provides daily payments, vehicles, fuel, equipment and food for the police.
Sebastiaan Bock, chief operating officer for Barrick companies in the Africa and Middle East region, said in testimony that the North Mara subsidiary pays a daily fee of 100,000 Tanzanian shillings (about $58) for every police officer on duty each day, in addition to their regular wages.
The mining company provides repairs and maintenance for the vehicles that it supplies to the police, Mr. Bock said. It also built a barrack for the police, including a canteen, he said.
While the police are responsible for security outside the mine perimeter, they have a liaison office inside the mining site, and they are called into the site if the mine’s unarmed security guards believe their lives are at risk, he said.
A copy of a 2022 agreement between the Barrick subsidiary and the Tanzanian police, posted on a Barrick website shortly before the Ontario court hearing, confirms the company’s payments to the police and shows that the subsidiary is providing 20 Toyota Land Cruisers for the police to use. It lists 11 villages in the security area around the mine.