Terry Holohan, the chief executive of Australian gold miner Resolute Mining, has been detained by the military-controlled government of Mali in West Africa, according to people familiar with the matter.

Holohan and other company executives were taken by Mali’s junta over the weekend, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Perth-based Resolute declined to comment. An official at Mali’s mining ministry declined to comment when reached by phone. The issue was previously reported by Agence France-Presse.

The apparent detention follows several arrests in recent weeks of fellow gold miners Barrick Gold by the military government that launched a coup in 2020. Four Barrick employees were arrested in October.

Resolute, like other international miners operating in Mali, has come under increasing pressure since the military took power. The company has ramped up production at the Syama project in the country’s southeast, and a second phase of the mine is expected to be operational in 2025.