Gold Fields and AngloGold Ashanti have announced plans to work together on a project that will create Africa’s largest gold mine in Ghana.
The joint venture will bring together Gold Fields’s Tarkwa Mine and AngoGold Ashanti’s Iduapriem Mine, both of which are located near the town of Tarkwa in western Ghana.
Martin Preece, interim CEO of Gold Fields, said the project would combine the two mining operations that were essentially part of the same mineral deposit.
‘By creating one of the world’s largest open-pit gold operations, in a pre-eminent mining jurisdiction, we will create longer-term value not only for AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields, but for the combined stakeholders in our local host communities and for all of Ghana,’ said AngloGold Ashanti CEO Alberto Calderon.
The companies said yesterday that it was intended that the proposed joint venture will be an incorporated joint venture, constituted within Gold Fields Ghana and operated by Gold Fields. AngloGold Ashanti will contribute its 100% interest in Iduapriem to Gold Fields Ghana in return for a shareholding in that company.
Excluding the 10% interest that the government of Ghana holds in Tarkwa mine, Gold Fields will have an interest of 66.7% and AngloGold Ashanti will have an interest of 33.3%.
‘The proposed joint venture would create the largest gold mine in Africa and one of the largest in the world. It will be a high-quality operation, supported by a substantial mineral endowment and an initial life spanning almost two decades.’
‘The ability to optimise mining and the use of shared infrastructure across the combined operation will result in significant flexibility in mine planning, materially enhancing the economics of the mine and ensuring quality and scale of operation that will be world class’, said Preece.