AngloGold Ashanti, Obuasi, Mine hosted the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo, during his tour to the Ashanti Region on Monday, October 4, 2021.
In his speech, Mr. Eric Asubonteng, the Managing Director AngloGold Ashanti, Obuasi Mine, commended the President Akufo- Addo for “continuing to take an interest in the progress of the Obuasi Mine and including the mine as part of his tour of the Ashanti Region.”
He further elaborated on the progress of the Obuasi Redevelopment Project, starting from Phase 1 and Phase 2, which have been completed. Mr. Asubonteng commented on the production ramp-up, which was temporarily interrupted due to the recent fall of ground in May 2021. He clarified that the current underground production areas review had been completed, and safe resumption of underground production will be happening in mid-October 2021.
“We expect to reach steady-state production of about 4,000tpd mined and milled by Mid-2022. Phase 3 of the construction project continues from 2021 up to 2023 and sets up the infrastructure needed to sustain production in deeper areas of the mine towards the northern areas, into the future.” He reiterated.
Furthermore, Mr. Asubonteng threw more light on the contributions of the mine to the Ghanaian economy. “Since the mine’s inception of the Obuasi Redevelopment Project, the mine has spent about $880 Million between project and operations, where 80 per cent of the spending was within Ghana (Ghanaian owned companies and Ghana registered businesses)”, he stated.
According to Mr. Asubonteng, in line with AngloGold Ashanti’s local content policy, the company has employed 3,859 people, of which 850 are directly AGAG employees, and 3000 are employed by contractors only 2 per cent of the AGAG employees are expatriates.
Through the company’s Social Management Plan, community projects such as the KNUST Obuasi Campus, the construction of the 1.3 Kunka Road to Dankwa Junction, the construction of a maternity block at the Obuasi Government hospital, the construction of the training and rehabilitation Centre for the Persons with disability, the set-up of 3-bed Intensive Care Unit among others were carried out. Above all, AngloGold Ashanti remains committed to contributing $2 per every ounce of gold produced to the Trust Fund for community projects to be carried out.
Addressing the gathering, the President, Akufo- Addo, thanked Mr. Asubonteng and the Management of AngloGold Ashanti, Obuasi Mine, for the presentation and the tour of the Mine site.
He congratulated them for their efforts to pull communities out of poverty and change livelihoods. He further expressed his delight to know that underground ore mining is expected to resume by mid-October, which will lead to the safe ramp up to the full mining rate of 4,000 tons per day and is expected to be achieved by the end of the first half of 2022.
He encouraged the management of Obuasi Mine to focus on the vision of the Obuasi Redevelopment project, which is to deliver a modern, state-of-the-art, mechanized underground mine that will enable AngloGold Ashanti Limited to mine its 30-million-ounce ore body
