Wednesday, February 29, 2012

US$200m for Obuasi mine

AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) says it expects to transform its Obuasi mine, which in recent years has undergone decline in production output, with US$200million of investment this year.

“Obuasi mine, the country’s biggest underground mine, is a high-cost producer and has never produced beyond 300,000 ounces in recent years. Obuasi remains the key outstanding issue from 2011,” Mr. Peter Anderton, Senior Vice President, AGA (Ghana) told participants at a stakeholder’s forum.

Mr. Anderton said: “The transformation will cover modernising and expanding its underground processes with new equipment. This will significantly reduce downtime of equipment, improve safety, and expand development of ore reserves. It will also speed up ore extraction, as well as improve recoveries to increase gold production.

“Obuasi has great ore body and together with the stakeholders, such as the people in the communities, the government, security agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency and the traditional leaders, the competitiveness of the Obuasi mine will be restored.
“AGA has strong, experienced and knowledgeable leadership -- though transforming the underground mine will not be easy.”

Mr. Anderton said the company’s values enjoin management not only to fix the challenges of Obuasi to ensure increased gold production, but more significantly actively work in concert with the communities and the municipal authorities to physically develop Obuasi as a safe and liveable municipality.

“One of the areas that we can help is to create alternative jobs, through the private companies operating in Obuasi and our own sustainability efforts,” he remarked.

B&FT has gathered that a high-level special taskforce -- ‘The Obuasi Taskforce’ -- has been formed for a 12-month period to fast-track additional corporate funding and external resources to support and define the long-term turnaround strategy for the Obuasi underground operation.

The objective is to accelerate the refurbishment and improve operational stability at the Obuasi mine. This is to ensure that the work done will be linked to the long-term strategy for Obuasi to provide sustainable outcomes for AGA’s stakeholders.

The work of the taskforce has also been expanded to ensure the delivery of maximum ounces and create a world-class operation.

AngloGold Ashanti gold production for 2010 was 4.52million ounces -- of which about 11% came from the Obuasi and Iduapriem mines, though Obuasi was challenged by restricted ore passes and unplanned plant shut-down for maintenance of the tailing-dam facility.

The Ghana mines produced just over 502,000 ounces, of which Obuasi contributed out 317, 000 ounces with Iduapriem making up for 185,000 ounces.

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