“Who would have thought that Mali would issue an international arrest warrant against [Barrick CEO] Mark Bristow?” That remark, made by Mamou Touré in December 2024, after a meeting with figures from Mali’s mining sector, has no doubt loomed in the minds of many.

It highlights, first, the intensity of the fight between Malian authorities and mining companies – so fierce that these authorities are now taking aim at Barrick Gold’s top boss. Second, it shows how, in only a few months, Touré has become the central figure in the stand-off between Bamako and the multinational firms that run the country’s gold mines.

Goïta’s key mining linchpin

Since 2021, Touré has carried out all sorts of tasks for the government, such as audits, contract negotiations and gold exploration. Now, at age 49, he heads the consultancy Iventus Mining and has gradually established himself as a powerful decision-maker in Mali’s extractive sector.

He was a leading figure in the audit of the mining code that began in 2022 and led, a year later, to the passing of a legal framework believed to grant Mali a better deal.

“He gets consulted on everything. During talks, he behaves as though he knows every detail,” says one industry insider who asked not to be named. “He wants to prove that he holds all the knowledge about Mali’s mineral wealth. The government has given him a wide berth.”

Touré plays down his elevated status. “The first mandate comes from the ministry of mines,” he tells The Africa Report. “They work hand in hand with the ministry of finance.”

By all accounts, he has become vital to Goïta’s administration. Touré is said to have been introduced to the junta by Alousséni Sanou, the finance minister. According to Touré, they grew close once the tender for the audit was launched, but some doubt that version.

“No one knows precisely how Mamou and Sanou met,” says a Malian official. “The fact is that nothing gets done without Mamou’s say-so. They wield a near-sovereign power. It’s strange.”

Sanou, whom some describe as a “mere accountant”, is a childhood friend of President Assimi Goïta, who listens to him carefully.

Revised mining code hits foreign firms

Defined in the revised mining code that Touré and Sanou helped shape, a new tax will hit mostly foreign mining operators. According to the finance ministry, it could bring Mali some $1.2bn during the first quarter of 2025.

[The mining] ministry lost control over mining in 2022

“The combined turnover of the 10 largest mining companies is 3,000bn CFA francs. Mali ought to benefit,” Sanou told the National Transitional Council on 30 December 2024.

This Touré-Sanou double act has also taken over the mining ministry’s portfolio. “The minister, Amadou Keïta, is just a bystander,” says one Malian civil servant. “That ministry lost control over mining in 2022. While Lamine Seydou Traoré [minister of mines, energy and water in 2020-2023] was busy with the national power utility, EDM, Sanou and his friend (Touré) seized the mining agenda.”

This interference by the finance ministry has caused grumbling in other departments. “There is plenty of resentment … because Iventus, the state-owned Sorem (Mali’s mineral resources research and exploitation company) and the finance ministry are steering the negotiations. The government must remind everyone of their own remit.”

From Randgold to Iventus

So who is Mamou Touré? After completing Badalabougou High School (Bamako) in 1996, the ambitious youngster won a government scholarship to study in France. He spent two years in a preparatory class in maths and physics, then passed the entrance exams for the École des Mines de Paris, graduating as an engineer in 2001.

Of course, we also had some differences of opinion, but I did not leave on poor terms

That year, he moved to Morocco. His first mining experience came at Managem, part of the royal holding company Al Mada. He worked at the Bou-Azzer underground mine near Ouarzazate as a production engineer, while earning another engineering degree at the École Hassania des Travaux Publics in Casablanca.

In 2005, he returned to Mali. He joined Randgold Resources, founded by the South African Mark Bristow, chief executive of Barrick Gold following its 2019 merger with Randgold.

Touré was part of the team that readied the Loulo-Gounkoto underground mine. From 2006 to 2015 he rose from planning engineer to head of underground mining for the Société des Mines de Loulo (Somilo). “We had a free hand to shape that mine,” he recalls.

But then, just as things seemed to be going well, Touré left Randgold. He says he wanted more freedom. “Of course, we also had some differences of opinion, but I did not leave on poor terms. We simply had less freedom to make decisions. That was the main reason,” Touré says.

“I felt it was time to write another chapter and apply my mining know-how in a different way. I did not leave Randgold unhappily.”

Barrick Gold versus Mali

Barrick Gold tells a different story. Several sources within the group say Touré left on bad terms and is now deliberately putting up roadblocks during talks with Mali’s junta.

Cooperation [between the country and mining firms] must continue but on fairer terms of revenue-sharing

“He slows the file’s progress. And whenever an agreement is reached, he goes to the president [Assimi Goïta] and doubles the figures,” says one source. After a turbulent 2024, Bristow’s group has reportedly asked the Malian government “to hire another international consultancy”.

Some observers of Mali’s business scene think the row stems from an unresolved, private dispute. The authorities seized some of Barrick Gold’s bullion, prompting the firm to suspend operations at Loulo-Gounkoto on 14 January.

“Touré has gone too far,” says one analyst. “He is risking Mali’s reputation just to get even with Barrick. That sort of personal vendetta is not helpful.”

Is he settling old scores? “Absolutely not,” Touré says, laughing. “We are paid to find solutions. It would be far too simplistic to reduce such an important issue to a petty quarrel, which doesn’t exist in the first place. We work on behalf of the Malian people and government. Cooperation [between the country and mining firms] must continue but on fairer terms of revenue-sharing.”

The clash with Barrick is a “misunderstanding of the rules of the game”, he says. “Most mining contracts favour multinational companies more than governments. From my perspective, it’s a difference of opinion. Some people are unhappy, but the aim is to find a balance for everyone.” He adds that he feels “no bitterness towards Barrick staff”.

A wider push across West Africa

In this fight for fairer mining deals, Touré is not alone. At Iventus, he has joined forces with Samba Touré, whom he met at Randgold. Samba oversaw the company’s West African operations and is now a partner in Iventus.

“Samba is one of the best experts in Africa. He has worked in some of the world’s biggest mining groups, from BHP to AngloGold Ashanti and Randgold,” says Touré. “He has 40 years’ experience.”

The two men, who share only a surname, resigned from Randgold in 2015 and stayed in Mali to set up Iventus Mining. Touré – labelled a “show-off” by his critics – runs the day-to-day business. Samba is more reserved and tends to speak only when more detail is needed in meetings, but his presence is crucial because he heads Sorem, a state-backed mining outfit created in 2022.

While the discreet battle in Mali rumbles on, Iventus is seeking to expand. The group will shortly partner with Forvis Mazars Sénégal to conduct an audit of the mining sector there, according to Africa Business+. The two firms worked together on Mali’s audit and know each other well.

“The Senegalese government has asked me to carry out a similar audit to the one in Mali,” says Cheikh Oumar Seck, a partner at Forvis, who calls Touré a “buddy”.

Other Sahel States lined up

Opinions differ on Touré, but many concede that he knows the mining sector inside out. “He is an expert,” says one industry source. “He and his associate have a track record. They are not just here because they are someone’s cousins.”

The Iventus-Mazars duo is said to be looking at opportunities in Burkina Faso. Under its leader, Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina is also ratcheting up the pressure on multinational miners by threatening to withdraw their permits.

Touré enjoys a good reputation in Ouagadougou. When the Russian firm NordGold quit the Taparko mine in 2022, he was consulted on how to restructure the site, which the government then took over.

“We are involved in running that mine, but it isn’t mine,” he says. “It is proof that Africans – and Iventus – can manage a mine to international standards. It belongs to the Burkinabè state and to an African group. That is why I agreed to chair its board.”

As for Niger, a member of the Alliance of Sahel States, Iventus has not begun prospecting work there, but Touré can barely hide his eagerness. “We would be delighted to offer our services to that country and any African state looking to revise its mining laws,” he says, adding that his team of around 15 is ready to operate anywhere on the continent.