AngloGold Ashanti sees Tanzania gold output up in 2009
miningweekly.com
By: Reuters
24th March 2009
ZANZIBAR – AngloGold Ashanti expects gold production at its Geita mine in northwest Tanzania to surpass 300 000 ounces this year, up from 260 000 ounces in 2008, its chief executive said on Monday.
Mark Cutifani said AngloGold Ashanti's Tanzanian operations have had a few rough years with operations below expectations. In October and November last year, Geita had to shut its SAG mill and the mine suffered a pit wall failure the year before.
"It's been a tough couple of years. It has not been performing as well as we'd like. We are looking to do over 300 000 ounces this year and over the next three or four years expand the operations and production to over 500 000 ounces," Cutifani told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference.
He said the company planned to invest on average about $30-million to $40-million in the mine each year to boost production between an annual 500 000 ounces to 600 000 ounces in five years' time.
"It's probably going to be a tough 12 months ahead of us, but after that we should do pretty well," he said.
Geita employs more than 3 000 people and is one of AngloGold Ashanti's largest of its eight open pit mines in Africa.
AngloGold Ashanti is the the world's third biggest gold miner. It has 21 operations in ten countries across four continents. More than 40% of production comes from South Africa with Australia and Ghana the next biggest contributors.
Tanzania, an east African economy of 40-million people, is vying with Ghana to be the continent's second largest gold producer after South Africa.
Last week, the Tanzanian government said it planned to have a new mining law in place by June, but that it would not affect existing operations significantly.
In Africa, AngloGold Ashanti has operations in Ghana, South Africa, Mali, Guinea and Namibia.
It is also prospecting in Democratic Republic of Congo and hopes to announce a deal there soon.
"We are working with the government, making sure we understand what we need to do to make sure we have got long-term prospects. Hopefully in the next month or so we will be announcing we have done a deal on the ground that we have there," Cutifani said, without giving more details. |
