• South Africa
• Namibia

Namibia

AngloGold Ashanti has one mining operation in Namibia, Navachab, which produced 65,000oz of gold in 2009, equivalent to 3% of the Southern Africa region’s production and 1% of group production.

For information on the regulatory environment and licence to operate in Namibia, refer to the section entitled Regulatory environment enabling AngloGold Ashanti to mine.

Navachab

Description

Navachab Gold Mine is situated near the town of Karibib, some 170km northwest of the capital Windhoek, and 171km inland on the southwest coast of Africa. Navachab, which began operations in 1989, is an open-pit mine with a processing plant which includes mills, carbon-in-pulp and electro-winning facilities, with a monthly capacity of 120,000t.

Key statistics

Safety

Navachab experienced its first fatal accident since the start of operations when a drill-rig operator was fatally injured in a tramming accident on 2 June 2009. Contractor drilling operations were halted for a month to ensure all risk and safety aspects of the operation were thoroughly addressed. As a result of the review, drilling contractors will be required to use only rigs with enclosed cabs to prevent a reoccurrence of this incident. Two safety interventions involving the entire workforce were held during the year to ensure improved performance.

The FIFR for 2009 was 0.67 per million hours worked (2008: 0) with an LTIFR for the year of 2.02 (2008: 0).

OHSAS 18001 assessments were conducted in July and December 2009, with Navachab retaining its certification on both occasions.

Operating performance

Gold production at Navachab declined by 4% to 65,000oz in 2009. The decline in production was a result of the 14% decrease in tonnes treated, caused by harder footwall material.

Unit cash costs rose 16% to $622/oz as a result of higher labour, power costs and rising contractor fees. This was compounded by the decline in gold production.

Capital expenditure for the year totalled $20m, with $12m spent on construction of the dense media separation (DMS) plant and $2m on exploration. The balance was allocated to stay-in-business expenditure, including work on the filtration plant; upgrades of heavy mining equipment; the construction of new housing to accommodate half of the workforce; acquisition of two new drill rigs; a stand-by generator, and a storage area network information technology system.

Growth prospects

Construction of the DMS plant remained on schedule and the training of operators was completed. Commissioning of the plant is scheduled for the first quarter of 2010, and will result in improved production by increasing grade.

Long-lead items for the filtration plant were ordered in 2009 and construction of the new filtration plant will begin in 2010 to provide the second tailings storage facility (TSF) ahead of 2011, when the existing TSF is due to reach capacity. The filtration plant will ensure cost savings on detoxification chemicals and will allow for the additional recovery of water from the plant. The plant will also negate the inherent safety, health and environment risks associated with a TSF.

Optimisation work on the western pushback continues in order to maintain annual gold production of between 100,000oz to 120,000oz. Evaluation of a further expansion to add 700,000oz of gold to reserves is at the scoping stage. The exploration strategy has also been adjusted to optimise the sequence of mining.

Outlook

Gold production for 2010 is expected to increase to between 96,000oz and 100,000oz with total cash costs of between $600/oz and $628/oz. This significant increase in production of 48% will be mostly attributable to the improved grade at the DMS plant.

Capital expenditure of $18m is forecast for 2010, of which $3m relates to commissioning of the DMS plant, $2m for exploration and a further $13m to stay-in-business expenditure. The latter will be spent primarily on the filtration plant and heavy mining equipment.

Community and environment

ISO 14001 environmental certification was maintained during the year. Another important milestone for the operation was passed in November 2009, when Navachab achieved compliance with the Cyanide Code. Formal notification is awaited from the Code Secretariat.