Romanian business tycoon Frank Timis in battle with leaders of African country

Burkina Faso’s mines minister says the country will terminate a contract with Romanian-Australian businessman Frank Timis, whose company had acquired the rights to the Tambao mine, which reportedly holds 100 million tonnes of manganese reserves, in 2012, Reuters reports.

Timis’s Pan African Burkina Limited (PAB) claims it has invested over USD 100 million in developing the world’s biggest manganese mine, but it has had legal troubles with the government over permits.

The government with which PAB signed the deal in 2012 was overthrown two years later, and the new government suspended their export permit in 2015, claiming some permits had been awarded in a non-transparent manner. Later, the suspension was lifted.

In December 2016, Timis’s companies announced that they were seeking USD 385 million in damages from Burkina Faso, claiming the country blocked the development of the mine.

Sources have told Reuters that Timis’s firms would also seek compensation for loss of profit from Burkina Faso, which could take the total amount up to more than USD 4 billion.

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Who is Frank Timis?

He is a very controversial Romanian billionaire, and has even been included in the Panama Papers scandal.

Currently he is focused on business in Africa, but his name has been linked to some of the biggest questionable deals in post-communist Romania. He was even convicted for drug trafficking.

The best known businesses he has been involved him is exploiting gold deposits in Rosia Montana and Certej, which sparked major protests and environmental concerns in Romania in 2012.

As a result of these scandals, he withdrew from Romania and started to massively invest in Africa, but he has been accused of corruption there as well.