diff --git a/src/librustc_mir/interpret/place.rs b/src/librustc_mir/interpret/place.rs
index 0eae2bfb226c..3b104e2284fe 100644
--- a/src/librustc_mir/interpret/place.rs
+++ b/src/librustc_mir/interpret/place.rs
@@ -299,23 +299,17 @@ where
 
     /// Turn a mplace into a (thin or fat) pointer, as a reference, pointing to the same space.
     /// This is the inverse of `ref_to_mplace`.
+    /// `mutbl` indicates whether we are create a shared or mutable ref, or a raw pointer (`None`).
     pub fn create_ref(
         &mut self,
         place: MPlaceTy<'tcx, M::PointerTag>,
-        borrow_kind: Option<mir::BorrowKind>,
+        mutbl: Option<hir::Mutability>,
     ) -> EvalResult<'tcx, Value<M::PointerTag>> {
         // Pointer tag tracking might want to adjust the tag
         let place = if M::ENABLE_PTR_TRACKING_HOOKS {
             let (size, _) = self.size_and_align_of_mplace(place)?
                 // for extern types, just cover what we can
                 .unwrap_or_else(|| place.layout.size_and_align());
-            let mutbl = match borrow_kind {
-                Some(mir::BorrowKind::Mut { .. }) |
-                Some(mir::BorrowKind::Unique) =>
-                    Some(hir::MutMutable),
-                Some(_) => Some(hir::MutImmutable),
-                None => None,
-            };
             M::tag_reference(self, *place, place.layout.ty, size, mutbl)?
         } else {
             *place
diff --git a/src/librustc_mir/interpret/step.rs b/src/librustc_mir/interpret/step.rs
index 80b9948f612e..97431cfe6808 100644
--- a/src/librustc_mir/interpret/step.rs
+++ b/src/librustc_mir/interpret/step.rs
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 //!
 //! The main entry point is the `step` method.
 
-use rustc::mir;
+use rustc::{hir, mir};
 use rustc::ty::layout::LayoutOf;
 use rustc::mir::interpret::{EvalResult, Scalar, PointerArithmetic};
 
@@ -250,7 +250,15 @@ impl<'a, 'mir, 'tcx, M: Machine<'a, 'mir, 'tcx>> EvalContext<'a, 'mir, 'tcx, M>
             Ref(_, borrow_kind, ref place) => {
                 let src = self.eval_place(place)?;
                 let val = self.force_allocation(src)?;
-                let val = self.create_ref(val, Some(borrow_kind))?;
+                let mutbl = match borrow_kind {
+                    mir::BorrowKind::Mut { .. } |
+                    mir::BorrowKind::Unique =>
+                        hir::MutMutable,
+                    mir::BorrowKind::Shared |
+                    mir::BorrowKind::Shallow =>
+                        hir::MutImmutable,
+                };
+                let val = self.create_ref(val, Some(mutbl))?;
                 self.write_value(val, dest)?;
             }