Management of AngloGold Ashanti, Obuasi Mine outlined its “diversified, decisive and sustainable” plan for the mine during a town hall meeting in Obuasi last week. Mr. Eric Asubonteng, the Managing Director of the Obuasi Mine, reiterated that the retrenchment carried out by the mine was for the greater good of the company and the Community as a whole.
AngloGold Ashanti, Obuasi Mine, now operates on a concession of 201Km2 from its previous 475Km2 which covers 63 communities. Even at its Care and Maintenance state, it still has 300 employees and 500 third party contractors.
History
The Obuasi Mine has existed since 1897. In 2004, a merger between AngloGold and Ashanti Goldfields Company gave birth to AngloGold Ashanti but the Mine made little profit. Additional $1.2Bn has been pumped into the mine since 2004. In 2014, AGA started its restructuring by suspending underground mining before the end of the year. The workforce was retrenched and the non-core units of the company restructured. Key units of the Mine were set up as autonomous and 60% of their concession was relinquished to the government. The Care and Maintenance carried out by the Mine since 2016 costs them $50m to $60m a year.
Future
As part of the restructuring, Mine Design, mine planning, geology and processing will be done in-house though some activities like water treatment will be contracted. Mining and their security arm will be contracted out with increased in-house supervisory personnel. Sustainable Development Units including the hospital and school will continue to operate as independent wholly owned subsidiaries.
18 months after starting construction, the Mining giant hopes to produce 2000 tones of gold per day (tpd) which could increase to 4000tpd in the third to fourth year. From the fifth year onwards, they could be producing 5000tpd.
In order to achieve these and prevent the illegal miners intrusion from happening again, the Mine has decided to demarcate the operating areas of the mine from the adjacent communities to boost safety and security. They also intend to fence and monitor remotely the mining areas.
AngloGold Ashanti will employ over 2300 people to work in the mine.
