Acacia Mining has announced to its employees that its Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Deo Mwanyika has officially left the company.
“Please be informed that Deo Mwanyika, Vice President Corporate Affairs, has taken early retirement and is no longer an employee of the Acacia Group,” Acacia Mining Chief Executive Officer, Peter Geleta, announced in an internal communication Friday last week.
Mr Mwanyika has been with Acacia Mining for 17 years after joining one of Acacia’s predecessors, Kahama Mining Corporation as Chief Legal Counsel.
Acacia Mining, which owns and operates three major mines in Tanzania – Bulyanhulu, Buzwagi and North Mara, is involved in tax dispute with the government which is brokered by its largest shareholder, Barrick Gold.
As news about Mwanyika departure were officially confirmed, media reports said yesterday that Acacia Mining Chairman, Kelvin Dushnisky, was to become South Africa’s AngloGold Ashanti new boss.
He will be replaced on interim basis by Rachel English, one of Acacia’s non-executive directors, Acacia said. The government accuses Acacia of understating its production and seized last year containers of gold and copper concentrate ready for export.
The move was followed by a $190-billion tax bill. Barrick, which owns 63.9 percent of Acacia, struck a framework agreement in October that was supposed to end the tax row.
The deal would see the company giving Tanzania a 16 percent stake in three gold mines operated by Acacia, a one-off payment of $300 million (£227.6 million), and a 50:50 partnership with the government to split “economic benefits” from operations.
In the nine-months of talks between Barrick and Tanzania, Acacia Mining has seen its chief executive and finance director both leave. Shares in the company, in the meantime, have dropped more than 78 percent.
