AGC Appoints Five New Directors

ACCRA, Ghana (PANA) - Ashanti Goldfields Company, Ghana's multi-national gold mining company, has appointed five additional non-executive directors with effect from 22 February.

A statement issued in Accra on Thursday named them as Alex Ashiagbor, Ekow N. Awoonor, Chester A. Crocker, Kwabena Duffuor and Michael Martineau.

Ashanti had earlier last week appointed Philip Tarsh as acting Chairman of the Board.

Ashanti has been in trouble since late last year when its hedging policy backfired with the sudden rise in gold prices, sending the company battling for survival.

Five shareholders of the company sought and obtained a High Court order for the holding of an Emergency General Meeting to, among other things, appoint a new Board of Directors.

The Company, Ghana government, Adryx Mining and Metals Limited of Luxemburg, a minority shareholder which was one of those that took the court action, and Lonmin, a major shareholder, later hammered out an agreement on the concerns of the shareholders.

Lonmin owns 32 percent shares in Ashanti while the the government holds 20 percent, including the golden share.

Finance Minister Richard Kwame Peprah, who is Chairman of the AGC Board, resigned last week citing pressures of implementing the challenging targets set by the 2000 national budget.

Five directors had earlier informed Ashanti of their intention to retire from the board with effect from the forthcoming Annual General Meeting on 26 April.

They are Kofi Ansah, former chief executive of the Minerals Commission, Fred Ohene-Kena, former Minister of Mines and Energy, Henry Otoo, Deputy Managing Director, Sir William Ryrie and Philip M. Tarsh.

AGC said early this week that it had signed a 100 million-dollar debt facility to complete its Geita Project in Tanzania for general working capital purposes.

It also said it had signed an agreement for the renewal, under new terms, of its existing 270 million- dollar Revolving Credit Facility (RCF) and consolidation of its existing bilateral facilities in a new tranche of the RCF.

Ashanti said it obtained an amendment to the agreement with its hedge counter-parties under which the conditions to continue to permit margin-free trading for three years have been satisfied or waived.

As part of that agreement, the company has reprised the five-year equity warrants, issued to its hedge counter-parties on 30 October, 1999 to facilitate the re-allocation of a proportion of them to the Company's lending banks as part of the overall arrangements.

Ashiagbor, 66, is the Executive Chairman of Metropolitan and Allied Bank (Ghana) Limited and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research of the University of Ghana.

From 1962, he held various senior appointments in the Bank of Ghana and Ministry of Finance. He was the Governor of the Bank of Ghana from 1977 to 1982 when he was also the Chairman of the Board of Ashanti.

From 1982 until 1993, he served with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva.

Awoonor, 51, is a Principal of Awoonor Law Consultancy, a corporate and investment law firm in Accra.

He is a director of SSB Bank and African Tiger Mutual Fund Limited.

Crocker, 59, served as a US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1981 to 1989.

He is currently the James R. Schlesinger professor of strategic studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

Crocker is Chairman of the Board of the US Institute of Peace and is an adviser on strategy and negotiations to a number of US and European companies.

Duffuor, 57, is the Governor of the Bank of Ghana. He has served as a director of a number of Ghanaian companies and is currently a director of the Ghana Cocoa Board and Ghana Cocoa Marketing Company Limited.

Martineau, 55, a Briton, is a director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Axmin Limited and Carpathian Gold Limited. He is also a director of Adryx Mining and Metals Limited.

He has served as a director or several mining and exploration companies in Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom and United States.