* Safety stoppages cloud output forecast
* Adjusted earnings fall 35 percent, below consensus
* Group has record earnings for full year
(Recasts, rewrites throughout)
By Ed Stoddard and Sherilee Lakmidas
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 15 – AngloGold Ashanti, the
world’s third-largest gold producer, became the latest South
African miner to report a surge in output-disrupting safety
stops on Wednesday as it unveiled a sharp fall in fourth-quarter
earnings.
South Africa’s mineral resources department has ramped up
efforts to reduce accidental deaths in the country’s mines, the
world’s deepest and among its most dangerous.
Fatalities among mostly black miners are far below those
reached under white-minority rule, but around 10 workers are
still killed underground each month in the country.
AngloGold, which gets 40 percent of its global output from
South Africa, said the interruptions were “a significant risk to
forecasting production”. It estimated that output for 2012 would
be at 4.3 million to 4.4 million ounces of gold.
The safety drive across the gold and platinum industries in
South Africa has cut output and is a key reason behind a 17
percent spike in spot platinum so far this year.
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