Resolute Mining will pay Mali’s military-led government $US160 million ($247 million) to settle a tax dispute that resulted in the arrest of the ASX-listed gold miner’s chief executive and two other staff.

The three Resolute executives, all British nationals, have been held by the ruling junta for more than a week as part of efforts to extract more money from foreign companies that operate in the impoverished but mineral-rich West African nation.