Despite strengthening commodity prices this year and mining houses returning to the hunt for acquisitions, Africa remains a tough ground to mine as vague government policies continue to frustrate companies. This week, Randgold Resources, which has gone head-to-head with the Mali government over tax issues, had to pull out all the stops to solve its tax claims problem. The Mali government escalated the dispute on Monday when it closed the group's offices in Bamako, the country's capital. Randgold CEO Mark Bristow said on Wednesday it was disappointing that the company, which had invested in Mali for about 20 years during which time it had successfully dealt with 12 or 13 ministers of mining, had not yet resolved the issue through dialogue. "This latest round comes across a little bit as collecting money rather than working to calculate a reasonable tax on profits according to our agreements, so of course it's a matter of interpretation, [But] I have no doubt the issue will be resolve...
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