Tanzania and the Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold Corp on Friday signed an agreement to kick-start their new joint venture company to oversee Barrick’s future gold mining operations in the country, as a way forward following a year-long impasse.

“Being a year now, we have finally completed the long journey of negotiations and renegotiations and agreed on nine key points that will underpin the activities of Twiga Mining company, a joint company between the Tanzanian government and Barrick,” Foreign Affairs Minister Prof Paramagamba Kabudi said at the signing held in State House in Dar es Salaam and witnessed by President John Magufuli.

No details were immediately available of the nine points highlighted in the new agreement which will oversee implementation of the original pact between Tanzania and Barrick dating back to October 2017 when former Barrick affiliate Acacia Mining was still running the Tanzanian operation of three gold mines in the country’s lake zone.