AngloGold Ashanti’s exports from Guinea blocked

Production and Markets

Publishing Date: 26 Jun 2009 11:51am GMT
Author: Mining Journal

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, the world’s third-biggest producer of the metal, had its exports from Guinea blocked by the government, the environment minister said.

Guinea made the move while it assessed the Johannesburg- based company’s tax payments and compensation for damage to the environment, minister Papa Koly Kouroum said in a telephone interview from Nzerekore yesterday.

“The gold quantities blocked at the Guinean central bank are about 700 to 800 kilograms (22,500-25,700oz),” he said. AngloGold may have to pay the government as much as US$260 million for damage to the environment, he said.

AngloGold will issue a statement on Friday “after the completion of discussions currently under way with the government,” Alan Fine, the company’s spokesman, said by phone from Johannesburg.

AngloGold’s Siguiri mine was shut temporarily in March by Guinean President Moussa Dadis Camara who cited the non- attendance of a company official at a meeting of gold producers.
The mine is 15%-owned by the state and produced about 333,000oz last year.

The West African country may raise taxes on metal producers to overcome a shortage of foreign currency, research firm Eurasia Group said in April. Guinea produced more than 400,000oz of gold in 2007, the firm said.

June 25 (Bloomberg)