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JOHANNESBURG, April 10 (Reuters) – South African safety
stoppages cost top gold producer AngloGold Ashanti
76,000 ounces of lost production in the first three months of
2012, more than for the whole of last year, the its trading
statement revealed on Tuesday.
The lost production in the three months to end-March is
worth $125 million at current spot prices and exceeded the
73,000 ounces of output lost in 2011.
A safety drive across the gold and platinum industries in
South Africa has cut output and has led to an outcry from the
industry, which has warned that halts to operations that are not
connected to fatalities make the working environment more risky.
AngloGold Ashanti Chief Executive Mark Cutifani said in
February, “The concern we have in a deep underground gold mine
(is that) when you stand an operation for five days, you are
creating new safety hazards that we believe in certain cases are
well in excess of the hazard that you are trying to correct.”
Africa’s largest gold producer, which gets 40 percent of its
global output from South Africa, said first-quarter 2012 gold
production was around 980,000 ounces, down from fourth-quarter
production of 1.114 million ounces.
It warned that the lower production was “likely to have a
consequential impact” on cash costs, which were at $762/oz in
the three months to end-December 2011.
Spot gold was $1,645.00 an ounce in early afternoon
trade on Tuesday.
AngloGold’s share price was down 1 percent, underperforming
a slight gain on Johannesburg’s benchmark index.
(Reporting by Sherilee Lakmidas, editing by Jane Baird)
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