“It is something that is focusing the board’s attention and it’s something we’ll look at the end of this year to be announced early next year”, said CEO Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan.
Advertisement
In addition, a number of Brownfield expansion or mine-life extension projects are under way, including at Siguiri in Guinea, Sadiola in Mali, Tropicana in Australia and Geita, in Tanzania.
In Ghana, AngloGold said its Obuasi mine, where production has been suspended, was still occupied by illegal miners.
AngloGold has started worldwide arbitration to secure Obuasi as the government and the company develop a plan to remove illegal miners, with “progress being frustratingly slow”, Venkatakrishnan said. He described the process as “frustratingly slow”.
In April, AngloGold filed a notice with the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes to help it resolve the crisis at the mine. The received gold price for the period was $1,222/oz compared with $1,204/oz a year ago.
On August 1, AngloGold Ashanti also completed the redemption of the remaining 8,5 percent seven year bonds outstanding, at a total cost of the $503 million.
AngloGold cut net debt by a third to $2.098bn from $3.076bn at the end of June previous year, mainly by selling its Cripple Creek & Victor mine in the United States for $819m to repay an expensive bond. Further inroads where made in the six months ended June 30 mostly by getting into its high interest yielding debt.
AngloGold Ashanti has said it more than trebled free cash flow generation in the first half of the year to $108m and lowered net debt by nearly a third, as costs fell and it took advantage of a higher gold price.
The weakening of local currencies – in Argentina, Australia and Brazil – gave a blush to the financial numbers.
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) were $911/oz, a $13/oz improvement year-on-year.
In South Africa, where output dropped 3 percent, AngloGold said: “Production continued to be hampered by increased safety-related stoppages, which have become a feature of the country’s underground mining industry”.
There were especially strong cost performances from Sunrise Dam and Cerro Vanguardia, which posted significant efficiency gains during the first half of 2016. Randgold, the operator of the mine, has promised to restore the mine’s performance this quarter.
The outcome for the period was a $75m turnaround in net profit for the six months which came in at $52m compared to a $23m loss in the six months in 2015.
Adjusted headline earnings were $159m, or 39 cents per share in the first half of 2016, compared with $61m, or 15 cents per share, in the first half of 2015.
Operations at AngloGold Ashanti in South Africa delivered 486 000 oz of production at AISC of $958 /oz, a 13% cost reduction from the first six months of past year.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) decreased by 2% to $781-million.
Advertisement
“Goldman Sachs said it was only “a matter of time” before the dividend was reinstated and described AngloGold as being “… in a much better position now”.
