The top executive and two other employees of Australia's gold mining company Resolute Mining have been arrested and detained by Mali’s military junta.

Mali is demanding Australia’s Resolute Mining Ltd. pay about $160 million to resolve a tax dispute after the government detained the gold producer’s chief executive, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mali is demanding Resolute Mining Ltd. pay about $160 million to resolve a tax dispute after the government detained the Australian gold producer’s chief executive, according to people familiar with the matter.

Resolute Mining's shares fell by 32% on Monday, their worst trading day in 16 years, after top executives at the Australian gold mining company were detained as part of a crackdown on foreign firms in Mali.

Shares of Australian gold miner Resolute Mining plunged more than 30 per cent on Monday after the company said its chief executive Terence Holohan and two other employees had been detained in Mali. The Resolute executives were in the capital Bamako to discuss with officials “open claims made against Resolute” that the group “maintains are unsubstantiated”,