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Review of operations and projects

CONTINENTAL AFRICA

  1. (1) Attributable production
  2. (2) Including contractors
  3. (3) Average number of employees are attributable
  4. (4) Feasibility projects
 
Operations Gold production (000oz)(1) Average number of employees(2)(3)
1
Ghana
Iduapriem 199 1,543
Obuasi 313 5,538
2
Mali
Morila 99 328
Sadiola 121 756
Yatela 29 377
3
Guinea
Siguiri 249 3,666
4
Namibia
Navachab 66 790
5
Tanzania
Geita 494 3,541
 
Projects Average number of employees (2)(3)
6
DRC
Kibali(4) 688
Mongbwalu(4) 603

Risk/uncertainty/challenges

All operations:

Employee safety
Skills shortages
Compensation practices (for land)
Changes to regulatory and fiscal environment
oneERP implementation

  1. 1
    Ghana:

    Delivery on production targets
    Social issues arising from heightened community expectations
    and artisanal and small scale mining (ASM)
    Environmental permitting and process water management
    Security incidents
    Asset integrity relating to aging mine infrastructure
    Potential for energy shortages

  2. 2
    Mali:

    Delivery on production targets
    Social issues arising from heightened community expectations and ASM
    Environmental permitting and process water management
    Planning for closure

  3. 3
    Guinea:

    Social issues arising from heightened community expectations and ASM
    Security incidents
    Potential for energy shortages

  4. 5
    Tanzania:

    Labour relations/union negotiations
    Social issues arising from heightened community expectations and ASM
    Environmental permitting and process water management
    Security incidents

  5. 6
    DRC:

    Delivery of project into production
    Social issues arising from heightened community expectations and ASM
    Environmental permitting and process water management
    Security incidents
    Potential for energy shortages
    Increased legislation and initiatives in response to concerns
    regarding the potential for gold to contribute to conflict

AngloGold Ashanti has eight mining operations in its Continental Africa region:

  • Iduapriem and Obuasi in Ghana;
  • Siguiri in Guinea;
  • Morila, Sadiola and Yatela in Mali;
  • Navachab in Namibia; and
  • Geita in Tanzania.

Combined production from these operations increased by 5% to 1.57Moz of gold in 2011, equivalent to 36% of group production. Declines in production at the Siguiri, Obuasi, Yatela and Navachab operations were more than made up by increases at Geita especially, and at Iduapriem, Sadiola and Morila. Production at Geita rose by 38%.

Total cash costs increased by 7% to $765/oz, with Geita in Tanzania being the best performer on the cost front with a cash cost of $536/oz for the year. In all, these operations employed 16,539 people, including contractors, 778 more than in 2010. Regrettably, three contractor employees lost their lives in occupational accidents during 2011. The AIFR was 3.03 per million hours worked, a significant improvement as compared to 6.09 per million hours worked recorded in 2009. Total capital expenditure for the region was $420m, an increase of almost 79% on the $234m spent in 2010. The bulk of this was spent at the Obuasi and Iduapriem operations in Ghana, Geita in Tanzania and Navachab in Namibia.

The attributable Mineral Resource of the mining operations in Continental Africa totalled 76.05Moz at year-end, and an attributable Ore Reserve of 28.02Moz.

AngloGold Ashanti also has an active greenfield exploration programme, principally in the DRC, focused on the Mongbwalu concession and the Kibali joint venture with Randgold Resources and the DRC government. This is in addition to brownfield exploration being conducted in and around existing operations. For further information on the group‘s exploration programme in Continental Africa, see the global exploration section of this report.

In 2011, the Continental Africa region progressed development of a transformation model to address sustainability issues that have affected the region. Refer to Sustainability Report 2011 Regional Sustainability Strategies, Continental Africa region.

 
 

1,570000oz

 

16,539 people employed

$420m

 
Continental Africa – key financial and non-financial statistics
2011 2010 2009
Pay limit oz/t 0.036 0.040 0.044
  g/t 1.235 1.371 1.505
Recovered grade oz/t 0.055 0.052 0.054
  g/t 1.87 1.79 1.86
Gold production 000oz 1,570 1,492 1,585
Total cash costs $/oz 765 712 608
Total production costs $/oz 987 867 720
Capital expenditure $m 420 234 198
Number of employees   16,539 15,761 15,267
Employees   9,783 9,684 9,789
Contractors   6,756 6,077 5,478
Number of fatalities   3 5 3
Fatal injury frequency rate per million hours worked 0.05 0.09 0.06
All injury frequency rate per million hours worked 3.03 5.26 6.09
Number of cases of malaria identified   3,012 4,488 6,400
Malaria incidence rate at affected operations (1) per 100 employees 17.6 27.6 45.0
Number of employees undertaking voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) 7,745 8,162 9,957
Number of employees on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) 225 121 162
Water usage ML 27,114 24,432 26,344
Energy usage – direct Million GJ 9.52 9.40 9.20
– indirect Million GJ 1.96 1.90 1.93
Greenhouse gas emissions CO2e (000t) 957 936 969
Cyanide used (t) 14,219 12,797 15,975
Reportable environmental incidents   14 16 15
Community investment $000 13,502 8,047 5,525

(1)Recalculated using a method for standardising employee numbers.

Richard Duffy

PODCAST

“Lessons learnt at Geita are being applied at Obuasi... [where] we have the opportunity to become a lot more efficient and productive... and to turn it [Obuasi] into a modern operation.”

Richard Duffy Executive Vice President – Continental Africa

Listen to podcast
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