1,154 AngloGold Ashanti Employees to go home

…Power outages, others blamed for poor results at Obuasi

ONE THOUSAND, one hundred and fifty-four workers of AngloGold Ashanti’s Obusai Mine would be rendered redundant by the end of the year, Mr. Robbie Lazare, the Executive Director of Underground Mines in Africa, AngloGold Ashanti has said in Accra.

In an interaction with stakeholders in the mining industry including government representatives, members of the Chamber of Mines, Non Governmental Organisations, the Chiefs and people of communities where the company operates and the media, the Director of Underground Mining explained that various adverse effects on the Obuasi Mine which had led to the poor performance of the mine had necessitated this restructuring and re-engineering.

In its third quarter results, the Obuasi Mine was the sixth largest contributor to the total production of1, 410,000 ounces of gold but was the biggest loser in term of revenue contribution to the group.

He attributed this to several adverse factors. Prominent among the factors Mr. Lazare said, was the frequent power outages at the mine, which cost them $1.8 million extra every month.

He said this amount of money instead of investing into the mine, was being used to generate power to power the mine when power is off.

He further stressed that the problems illegal mining popularly known as ‘galamsey’ operators posed to their operation leading to the loss of high-grade gold ores. “They steal our gold and destroy our environment posing great danger to our miners,” he said.

High cost of gold production was also cited in the poor performance of the mining giant in the last nine months. He cited an example where prices of raw materials are between 30% and 80% the real value outside the country. He called for the development of the local manufacturing industry to be promoted to manufacture for the mining industry.

To cut down cost, he said 1,154 employees would be made redundant and very special and attractive packages have been prepared for them.

According to him, some of the redundant employees have been given training in other trades. 556 employees have however received their letters and are currently in the process of leaving the company.

He explained that people retrenched were very old hands and would not affect the company’s operations as several young employees have been sent to South Africa for training especially for the Obuasi Deeps.

Other policies to re-engineer the mine include effective management of cost through reagent usage, materials control, stock reduction and restructuring of contract costs.

This re-structuring is expected to take about four to five years to phase out. Ms. Joyce Aryee, the Chief Executive of the Ghana Chamber of Mines appealed to the Chiefs and people of the area to be calm with the situation.

She however said her outfit and the government were working tirelessly to make galamsey legal.