Gold miner Acacia Mining Plc on Tuesday agreed to extend the deadline for Canadian miner Barrick Gold Corp to make a firm offer for taking full control of the company.
Barrick spun off Acacia into a separate company in 2010, but owns 63.9 per cent of the miner, which has three mines in Tanzania.
It proposed to takeover Acacia last month in a deal that valued it at $787 million, nearly an 11-per-cent discount to its closing price before the offer.
Barrick had until June 18 to make a formal bid for Acacia or walk away from the deal. The deadline has now been extended to July 9.
The offer followed two years of wrangling over a $190 billion Tanzanian tax bill, with Acacia shut out of the talks with the Tanzanian government and Barrick negotiating on its behalf.
A proposed settlement Barrick announced in February included a $300 million payment to resolve the tax claims.
In the absence of a final deal with Tanzania, Acacia is expecting to go ahead with an international arbitration hearing in July, with an outcome expected by the end of this year.
On Tuesday, Barrick said that Acacia’s ongoing dispute with the Government of Tanzania has made it impossible for the miner to function as an independent public company.
“In the absence of a take-private transaction, Barrick does not consider there is any credible alternative solution which will preserve, to the extent possible, value for all stakeholders, and no such alternative has been presented by Acacia,” Barrick added.