AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. | Company Profile

About The Company

Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company has 21 operations and a number of exploration programmes in both the established and new gold-producing regions of the world.

In 2008, AngloGold Ashanti produced 4.98 million ounces of gold from its operations – an estimated 7% of global production – making it the third largest producer in the world. The bulk of its production came from deep-level underground operations (40%) and surface operations (2%) in South Africa. Contributions from other countries were Ghana (11%), Mali (8%), Australia (9%), Brazil (8%), Tanzania (6%), USA (5%), Guinea (7%), Argentina (3%) and Namibia (1%). In South Africa, ramping up of production at Moab Khotsong continued and is expected to increase significantly in 2009, and achieve full production levels in 2012.
As at 31 December 2008, AngloGold Ashanti employed 62,895 people, including contractors, had proved and probable Ore Reserves of 74.9 million ounces of gold and had incurred capital expenditure of $1,201 million for the year.

Exploration

Total exploration expenditure in 2008 amounted to $183 million, of which $77 million was spent on greenfield exploration, $86 million on brownfield exploration and the balance of $20 million on pre-feasibility studies. The main aim of both the greenfield and brownfield exploration programmes is to identify new attributable resource ounces of gold.

Greenfield exploration activities were undertaken in six countries – Australia, China, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Philippines and Russia – during 2008. A total of 304,371 metres of diamond, reverse circulation, and aircore drilling was completed in testing existing priority targets and in the delineation of new targets in Australia, Colombia, Russia, the DRC and China (refer to figure below).

Greenfield activities in Russia, China and the Philippines were undertaken predominantly through joint ventures and strategic alliances. While the discovery of new long-life, low-cost mines remains the principal aim of the greenfield exploration programme, AngloGold Ashanti is also committed to maximising shareholder value by divesting those exploration assets that do not meet its internal growth criteria and by opportunistically investing in prospective junior exploration companies.

For more detailed information about the projects and the company in general, please visit the website of AngloGold!

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