(Bloomberg) -- Acacia Mining Plc hit another roadblock in Tanzania, two days before a deadline for its parent Barrick Gold Corp. to make an offer to minority shareholders.

Tanzania ordered the company’s core gold mine, North Mara, to stop using its tailings storage from Saturday because of alleged seepage from the facility, Acacia said in a statement on Wednesday. The miner also said an international arbitration with Tanzania could be postponed to give the government time to settle a wider dispute through talks with Barrick.

Acacia shares fell as much as 2.6% in London and were down 2% as of 8:26 a.m.

Barrick, which owns 64% of Acacia, said in May it might buy out minorities in an all-stock deal but a formal offer has been delayed since then. The current deadline to submit a bid is Friday as Barrick responds to an independent report that attaches a higher value to Acacia than the Canadian mining giant.

Two years ago, Tanzania imposed an export ban on two of Acacia’s units, which have been waiting the arbitration ruling, and handed the miner a $190 billion tax bill. Since then, the company’s position in the country has deteriorated further, while its relationship with Toronto-based Barrick has become increasingly strained.

Acacia said in its statement Wednesday that it will “immediately seek” a stay of their international arbitration, for which hearings were due to start next Monday. The company is also reaching out to the Tanzanian government to seek clarification on the ban against using North Mara’s only tailings facility.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elena Mazneva in London at emazneva@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net, Dylan Griffiths

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