The London-listed gold miner, African Barrick Gold has been forced to defend payments of $ 400,000 in cash to Tanzanian government officials. The miner said the payments were part of an operation of valuing and buying land near its North Mara mine last year.
In a statement last night, African Barrick said that the payments were necessary because of the impoverished East African country’s lack of banking facilities and were part of an above-board, government-endorsed.
"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.
"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.
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.
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