AngloGold Restarts Operations Following Earthquake
AngloGold Ashanti reported on August 11
that it was restarting its Great Noligwa and
Moab Khotsong mines in the Vaal River
district of South Africa, where operations
were halted on August 5 following a 5.3-magnitude earthquake. The quake was one
of South Africa’s largest in the past decade
and was felt as far away as Mozambique
and Botswana. The epicenter was about 10
km below ground near the town of Orkney
in the Northwest province. One man, not a
miner, was reportedly killed on the surface
by a collapsing wall.
AngloGold’s Vaal River mines are
among the world’s deepest. The company
was restarting the mines in a phased fashion, following evaluation of seismic activity
in the area and after thorough inspections
of vertical shafts and horizontal underground infrastructure. Repairs to affected
areas and equipment were ongoing.
Based on likely power-supply scenarios
and assuming no further tremors that would
affect production, AngloGold estimated
that the interruption to operations would
result in about 30,000 oz of lost gold output. This loss also included downtime at
the Mine Waste Solutions surface operation, which was affected by an extended
power interruption, and also downtime at
the neighboring Kopanang mine, which was
taken offline to undertake a precautionary
inspection of infrastructure.
In total, 3,300 people were working
underground in the AngloGold mines when
the earthquake occurred. All were safely
hoisted to surface within seven hours of the
event. Twenty-eight people were treated for
minor injuries and discharged, while trauma counseling was provided to those
employees and contractors who required it.
AngloGold also was actively involved with
local government and civic organizations in
providing assistance where necessary to local
communities recovering from the earthquake.
AngloGold Ashanti is a global gold producer with 20 operations in 10 countries.
In 2013, the company produced 4.1 million oz of gold at a total cash cost of
$830/oz. During the year, Moab Khotsong
produced 212,000 oz and Great Noligwa
produced 83,000 oz. Together, the two
mines accounted for roughly 7% of
AngloGold Ashanti’s production in 2013.
In other news from AngloGold Ashanti,
the company reported significant improvement in its second-quarter 2014 operating
and financial results in comparison with
the second quarter of 2013: production
was up 17%, all-in sustaining costs fell
19%, corporate and marketing costs were
down 65%, exploration and evaluation
costs were 58% lower, capital expenditures
were down 44%, all-in costs were down
29%, and EBITDA was up 33%. These
results helped turn around a cash burn of
$488 million in the second quarter of
2013 to a positive cash flow of $34 million
in the second quarter of 2014, notwithstanding a $132/oz drop in the gold price.
As featured in Womp 2014 Vol 09 - www.womp-int.com