AngloGold Ashanti refuses to cede control of ailin
AngloGold Ashanti refuses to cede control of ailing Morila to Randgold
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Resources Editor
ANGLOGOLD Ashanti yesterday rebuffed a suggestion that it hand over the management of the Morila gold mine in Mali to its partner in the joint venture, Randgold Resources.
Spokesman Steve Lenahan said AngloGold Ashanti had `no intention of relinquishing its operatorship of Morila` .
The comments came after Randgold CE Mark Bristow told a media briefing yesterday that the expansion of the Morila mine was months behind schedule, laying the blame at the feet of project manager AngloGold Ashanti .
`I am disappointed by the delay of the expansion, which is substantially behind its plan,` he said, stressing that London-listed Randgold Resources had asked to take over managing the project.
He said the inability of the mine to boost output as expected was ` largely related to management issues`.
There have been problems with the milling and grinding of ore and in the extraction of gold, which ha ve led to lower output .
The mine produced 192196oz of gold in the six months to Jun e 2004, well down on the 474870oz in the six months to June last year.
Bristow said Randgold was ` only too comfortable to take over the operations of Morila, if they can`t see their way to operating it efficiently. If they can`t fix it, we`d be happy to do the job.`
Randgold does not currently operate any mines.
Bristow said AngloGold was given three months from July 8 to `prove` they could do the job.
`At the end of the day, for every dollar we save, they get 40c.`
Anglo Gold Ashanti and Randgold Resources each have 40% of Morila, with the government of Mali holding the remaining 20%.
Bristow said that if AngloGold Ashanti were to fail to deliver, he was confident that the government of Mali would be prepared to contribute to a simple majority vote of shareholders to hand management control of the mine to Randgold Resources.
Lenahan said both Randgold Resources and AngloGold Ashanti had already agreed to a plan `to overcome the difficulties` at Morila, and had spoken publicly on this. He said AngloGold Ashanti, as the operator of the mine, was confident the plan would deliver on target .
Lenahan also said there was a regular dialogue between the joint-venture partners at Morila, as was the case between AngloGold Ashanti and its partners in other projects.
In another development, Bristow said he had no intention of listing Randgold Resources already listed in London and on the Nasdaq in New York on the JSE Securities Exchange SA.
He said that this was because of the burden that exchange controls place on an international operation with a base in SA.
`You can`t run an international business out of Johannesburg because of foreign exchange controls you can`t offer shareholders a fair deal.`
However, he said his company followed the idea of the New Partnership for Africa`s Development raising capital in first-world markets and investing the money in projects in emerging markets.
Bristow said Randgold Resources had analysed the future of global gold production, and he believed there would be an overall decrease in gold supply.
He said the promising regions for future expansion in gold production were west and east Africa, and eastern Europe.
Sep 03 2004 07:19:32:000AM John Fraser Business Day 1st Edition
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