$259m tax waiver 'important milestone' – AngloGold CEO

CEO of AngloGold Ashanti, Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan, has said the $259 million tax waiver granted the miner by the government of Ghana which was recently ratified by the country’s parliament, marks as “important milestone”.

AngloGold Ashanti said the ratification of the Development Agreement and the Tax Concession Agreement (Obuasi Agreements) that cover the redevelopment of the Obuasi Gold Mine into a modern, productive mining operation, is an important step in progressing Obuasi’s redevelopment.

The miner said the environmental permitting process is also at an advanced stage.

The Board of Directors of AngloGold Ashanti had approved spending of $31m in February 2018, for front-end engineering and other preparatory work for the mine’s redevelopment, which is continuing.

“This is an important milestone that follows extensive negotiations and debate,” Mr Venkatakrishnan (Venkat), said.

“Obuasi is a high-grade, long-life ore body that will provide production for at least two decades at a very competitive cost, which will benefit a truly diverse set of stakeholders.”

“We’d like to extend special thanks to His Excellency, President Nana Akufo-Addo; the Honourable Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John-Peter Amewu; Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta; their respective Deputy Ministers and their teams, for providing leadership that produced an equitable outcome to benefit the national, regional and local economies,” Venkat added.