ANGLOGOLD ASHANTI ANNOUNCES $121M EXPANSION PROJECT IN BRAZIL
ANGLOGOLD ASHANTI LIMITED
(formerly AngloGold Limited
(Registration number 1944/017354/06)
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
(`AngloGold` or `the Company`)
ISIN: ZAE000043485 JSE Share code: ANG
ANGLOGOLD ASHANTI ANNOUNCES $121M EXPANSION PROJECT IN BRAZIL
AngloGold Ashanti announced today that its Board had approved a $121m
expansion project at the company`s Cuiaba mine in south-eastern Brazil. The go-
ahead was given at the Board meeting held in Johannesburg yesterday.
The project will focus on the deepening of the mine to access the Serrotinho
and Fonte Grande orebodies, located below the existing mine, which account for
60% of the total mineral resource at Cuiaba. Production will increase from the
current level of 190,000oz per year to 250,000oz at a cost of $169/oz over the
life of the project and will extend the life of mine profile by six years to
2019.
Accessing these additional ounces will require a deepening of the existing
mine by extending the ramp from level 11 to level 21, the deepest point at which
surface drilling has intersected the main orebodies. To accommodate the
resulting increase in mining volume, the project will include upgrading shaft
hoisting capacity and constructing new milling and flotation facilities at the
Cuiaba shaft area. Flotation concentrate will be transported via the existing
aerial ropeway to the treatment plant at Queiroz, located 16km from the mine,
where another roaster and acid plant will be built and the current leaching
facilities upgraded. The existing milling and flotation facilities at Queiroz
will be decommissioned.
Implementation of the deepening will commence immediately in order to
commission the expansion in December 2006, ramping up to full production by the
end of the second quarter of 2007.
In addition to significantly increasing production at Cuiaba, the completed
deepening project may also provide a new opportunity to exploit the narrow vein
orebodies below level 11 at Cuiaba mine as well as the Lamego deposit in the
area. Conceptual studies have highlighted the potential to extract significant
value from these areas, which would otherwise be sterilised, using the
infrastructure that the Cuiaba expansion will provide.
Commenting on the expansion, AngloGold Ashanti CEO Bobby Godsell said: `This
decision confirms the view that Cuiaba is a world-class, long-life mine and is
consistent with our value-adding strategy of growing the company through
discovering or acquiring new assets or expanding existing operations.`
ends
Johannesburg
27 January 2005
JSE Sponsor : UBS
Profile Group (Pty) Ltd. has taken care in preparing all information on this website, but does not accept any liability for errors or out-of-date information.
