AngloGold Ashanti has set its sight on regaining its competitiveness, said its CEO Alberto Calderon on Thursday, buoyed by the impressive third-quarter performance.
This is as the global gold mining company, formed in 2004 by the merger of AngloGold and the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, said production for the third quarter of 2022 rose 20% to 738 000 ounces (oz) compared to 613 000oz in the third quarter of 2021.
It said the performance was “underpinned by higher grades across most assets”.
“We continue to prioritise execution, efficiency and careful allocation of capital. We are focused on regaining competitiveness versus our peers, and we still have some way to go before we will be satisfied,” said Calderon.
The Johannesburg-based company recorded free cash flow of $169-million (R3.1-billion) in the third quarter compared to the $17-million it brought in the third quarter of 2021.
The company maintained a healthy balance sheet after paying an interim dividend, with about $2.5-billion in liquidity, including cash and cash equivalents of $1.2-billion at the end of September.
The group’s Obuasi, Ghana’s Ashanti region was also on track to achieve annual guidance of 240 000oz to 260 000oz for 2022. AngloGold Ashanti also announced that it has appointed Gillian Doran as its chief financial officer (CFO) and executive director of the company with effect from January.
Doran joins from Rio Tinto Group, where she is the company’s CFO.
AngloGold Ashanti’s rival Gold Fields also released its operational update for the quarter to September. The mining company, which is listed on both the JSE and the New York Stock Exchange, said its South Deep gold mine in the Witwatersrand Basin near Westonaria had a good quarter, producing 88 000oz of gold in the three months under review.
“South Deep has been tracking well against its production targets throughout the year. As a result, the team has revised gold production guidance to 10 000kg [321 500ozs] for the year ending December 2022. Previous guidance was 9 600kg [308,600ozs] to 9 700kg [311 800ozs],” CEO Chris Griffith said.
The company’s Australian region produced 258 000oz while its mines in Ghana produced 215 000oz. The Cerro Corona mine in Peru produced 60 000oz.
Meanwhile, Sibanye-Stillwater, which is in the process of retrenching 2 000 workers, said its South African platinum group metals (PGM) operations were impacted by unprecedented power curtailment imposed by Eskom during the third quarter, as well as a significant increase in copper cable theft.
“Severe loadshedding imposed by Eskom during September 2022 necessitated the curtailment of concentrator capacity across the PGM operations, impacting processed output and sales for the quarter,” Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman said.
“Underground mining was less impacted by the load curtailment, resulting in underground ore containing approximately 33 000 4Eoz being stockpiled on surface by the end of the quarter.”
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