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This month ten years ago, Sibanye Gold Limited was unbundled by Gold Fields Limited and listed on the JSE and the NYSE as an independent company with three deep-level South African gold mines and a market capitalisation of R10-billion.

Today, the group, headed by CEO Neal Froneman, has evolved into a multinational diversified mining and metals processing group with a portfolio of operations, projects and investments across five continents and with a market capitalisation more than 12-fold larger than it was in 2013. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Notably, in addition to the significant capital growth in the business, the company returned over R40-billion in additional value to investors in the form of dividends and share buybacks, four times its initial market capitalisation on listing.

This decade-long journey represents significant value creation for all stakeholders, and not exclusively for investors.

Early on in its existence, it recognised the importance of creating superior value for all stakeholders, a philosophy that is captured by its Umdoni tree, which symbolises its business ethos, and the early adoption of a stakeholder capitalism and shared value culture approach.

In 2013, it employed just over 36 000 people including contractors in South Africa which by 2021 had increased to 85 000 worldwide.

It paid R6-billion in salaries and benefits in 2013, which has grown to over R26-billion in 2021, a more than four-fold increase.

In addition to these salaries and benefits, R1.4-billion over the last two years has benefited 46 000 employees in the form of dividends and other employee share option scheme payments.

Entry-level salaries at its South gold operations have increased by over 105% since 2013, significantly higher than inflation, contributing to a decent living wage and reducing wage disparity.

The value it has shared with its communities through socio-economic development and corporate social investment programmes has also increased in the last ten years, from just over R1-billion in 2013 to over R2.2-billion in 2021, a 110% increase. It has recently gone beyond these investments by committing 1.5% of equivalent value in dividends paid out to shareholders, to infrastructure development projects in its local communities.

Its contribution to local society and economies goes beyond these investments, with taxes and royalties paid to governments increasing from R554-million in 2013 to almost R18-billion in 2021, a more than 30 times increase.

In the six months to the end of December last year, group adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of R41.1-billion for 2022 was 40% lower than the record adjusted Ebitda of R68.6-billion for 2021, but still the third highest group adjusted Ebitda recorded since listing.

The regulatory uncertainties and inability of the industry to transparently, quickly and efficiently apply for mining and prospecting rights in a corruption-free manner has had severe investment consequences, Minerals Council South Africa states in its Facts & Figures Pocketbook 2022.

This is glaringly evident in exploration, which, the Minerals Council adds, has virtually ground to a halt.

In 2022, the mining sector spent a mere 9% of what it did during the commodity price peaks of 1990 and 2006 – and then overwhelmingly on brownfields exploration in existing licence areas and minutely in new unexplored greenfields areas.

Under a gross fixed capital formation headline, the council points out that higher commodity prices have not resulted in higher fixed investment in mining, owing to the structural domestic constraints.

Minerals Council chief economist Henk Langenhoven and his team provide crucial insight into what mining’s numbers mean for the highly significant role that mining plays in South Africa.

While the positive impact of rising commodity prices continues to benefit mining financially, the longer-term production trend is struggling to break out of its low trajectory.

In spite of continual warning headlines and please for public sector collaboration, 2022 export volumes were 20% lower that pre-lockdown 2019 volumes owing to energy and rail disruption.

In fact, rail, harbour and electricity constrained export growth to such a degree that monthly volumes were at 2017 levels; only in 2019 were 15-million tons exported monthly but volumes have again dropped below that level.

This despite commodity prices in rands improving from 24% in 2020 to 19% in 2021 and then a further 70% up to December 2022.

But fixed investment stagnated last year, amid self-generation electricity projects being ‘stay in business investment’, and not investments in mining capacity expansion.

Meanwhile, mining input costs have been rising at over 15% on average during 2022, which will in time put pressure on employment numbers of 475 561.

Higher commodity prices are saving the day by lifting exports by 5% to R900-billion in 2022, when gross domestic product for mining declined 6%.

The 77 members of the Minerals Council represent 90% of South Africa’s mining production, with the financial contribution from this country’s platinum group metals mining companies leading the other ten commodity groups as a generator of revenue.

The economic contribution of the mining industry to the fiscus remains a key source of revenue for the South African government at a time when state-supplied electricity and transport logistics are dealing with crippling constraints and are negatively affecting the economy.

South African mining remained a trillion rand industry for the second year running when measured in production value, despite the headwinds of 2022. The value of production was R1.18-trillion.

Its direct contribution to South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) was R493.8-billion, making up 7.53% of the total GDP contribution.

“During 2023, we shall continue working closely with our business peers

and other stakeholders to ensure there are sustainable and pragmatic solutions to the energy and transport constraints as well as progress addressing the deteriorating crime and security environment for not only the mining industry but the entire economy.

“If these blockages are resolved, with the inclusion of the private sector, the mining industry’s role as a key contributor to the wellbeing of the South African economy will be fully unlocked to the benefit of all citizens,” says outgoing Minerals Council CEO Roger Baxter in the pocketbook release to Mining Weekly.

A new fully automatic bolter has been launched by mining services company Buraaq into the South African mining industry for use in underground and opencast operations.

The Buraaq SD212i bolter is locally designed and built, with its core design focusing on improving the safety of the operator and cost-effectively improving efficiency, Buraaq CEO Sam Kader said at the launch event on February 27.

"We started design in 2017, and there has been a need in the marketplace for a fully mechanised bolter for quite some time. Despite the disruption caused by Covid-19, we have completed this machine that is made with more than 95% local procurement," he noted, while thanking the Buraaq team for the success of the project.

The fully mechanised, intelligent rock bolter removes the operator from the rockface and unsupported areas to prevent injury and fatalities. The extendable boom keeps operators away from the bolting area, explained Buraaq design engineer Muhammad Kudoos.

The bolter has a falling object protective structure that is certified to Level 9 safety standards of the Mine Health and Safety Act. It also has various electronic safety interlocks, including proximity detection systems, to ensure that the machine only operates when it is safe to do so, he noted.

Further, the SD212i has a large-diameter stinger cylinder for high-accuracy indexing, thereby reducing the potential for misalignment, and the robust magazine securely holds the unused bolts for vertical and horizontal bolting, said Kudoos.

The SD212i has a 2 m x 2 m low-profile envelope and can work in an operating headroom of 1.6 m, but can reach heights of 4.5 m.

To improve safety further, operators can use the IP 65-rated wireless controller, which uses frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology to ensure that the controller can operate interference-free in a 100 m radius and thereby ensure that the operator is out of the danger area, or if the operator needs to take a different viewpoint to conduct his or her work.

The programmable logic controller-based event logging provides an intelligent, programmable platform with safety interlocks to govern safe operations, and continuous event monitoring enables efficient fault-resolution, he added.

Additionally, the SD212i also predicts significant-risk scenarios and can bring the machine to a controlled stop when such a dangerous situation is detected, said Kudoos.

"The bolting process is fast, repeatable and safe. We also provide training for operators and maintenance technicians to ensure that our clients have access to the required skills to gain the safety and productivity benefits of the SD212i," said Kudoos.

Meanwhile, industry organisation Mining Equipment Manufacturers of South Africa CEO Lehlohonolo Molloyi said at the launch that, although the mining industry in South Africa is facing many challenges, some successes must be acknowledged, including that fatality statistics have been dropping and reached the lowest in South African mining history of 49 fatalities recorded in 2022, and January saw no fatalities during the month.

"I congratulate Buraaq on their successful launch of this machine and dedication to safety and zero harm of people and the environment. All stakeholders in the industry must acknowledge that, as [industry organisation] the Minerals Council [of South Africa] says, zero-harm is achievable through the use of technology, such that we will be able to realise our goals of keeping people out of harm's way while still reaching our abundant and deep deposits of crucial minerals," he said.

South Africa has good engineering talent and skills that realise high levels of innovation within the industry. Although some of this is being lost to other parts of the world as local companies are bought over by larger multinational companies, South Africa can still take its advantage to the African mining market that is starting to flourish, said Molloyi.

"Mining stakeholders in Botswana, Namibia, the Democratic ...

Having last year achieved the lowest fall of ground fatalities ever, South African mining’s next big safety challenge is to achieve greater safety in the use of trackless mobile machines – rubber-tired vehicles that operate in underground mines without making use of rail tracks.

In 2021, South African mining suffered 16 trackless mobile machine-related fatalities – and last year that worsened to 17.

“We’re going to do whatever we can to bring that down,” says Minerals Council South Africa chairperson Zero Harm Forum Japie Fullard, who was speaking to journalists in the media lounge of the Investing in African Mining Indaba, together with outgoing Minerals Council CEO Roger Baxter and Minerals Council senior executive environment, health and legacies Nikisi Lesufi.

Following constructive collaboration, 2015 regulations governing trackless machines have now been uplifted, and the Mine Health and Safety Act Trackless Mobile Machinery Regulations for collision avoidance systems promulgated.

“It means we must now get into forward-march mode,” says Fullard.

Trackless mobile machinery is now a very big focal point, and Baxter reports considerable progress in the adoption of collision avoidance systems. Also at the Mining Indaba, South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research showcased a data-driven solution to eliminate trackless mobile machinery-linked transport injuries.

SIX FALL OF GROUND FATALITIES

In 2007, fall-of-ground incidents alone claimed 76 lives. Last year, this was cut down to six.

In 1992, the year Baxter joined the mining sector, the industry suffered 615 fatalities.

It has had a 90%-plus reduction since then, a lot of it testament to the adoption of global leading practice, changing people’s mindsets around safety behaviour within operations, legislative change through the Mine Health & Safety Act, and collaboration between the stakeholders through the Mine Health & Safety Council.

The Mine Health & Safety Act was promulgated after the Leon Commission of Enquiry, which took place after the Vaal Reefs disaster in 1995, when a locomotive fell into a lift shaft killing 104 people.

On what must be done to improve the safety of trackless mobile machines, Fullard says three things stand out:­ the technology itself and its link to mining processes, proper structuring of traffic management plans to ensure operational readiness within mines, and the importance of training.

“If you think that you’re just going to put in technology without upskilling your labour, you are going to have huge problems,” Fullard cautions.

“It’s not just push another button and it will be solved. It’s a process and that’s why we’re all working very hard to get all the companies into line,” he says.

A major focus is on high-potential incidents, which have not yet happened but which have the potential to cause fatality.

“We look at all the things that could have been fatal because that’s where the learnings are and the morale of those learnings is much better because nobody has lost a life. What we can do as the industry before people lose their lives is very important to me,” says Fullard, who emphasises that stopping mining in dangerous places is being incentivised and rewarded.

“If you think about a big mine, that’s 8 000 people going down underground, that’s 8 000 pairs of eyes. If you can get all of them to focus on the hazards, just imagine how safe that place can be. We are talking about people who have been in their roles in the mines for years and years. They’ve got so much experience and empowering them to let us know when they feel uncomfortable is probably one of the biggest breakthroughs that we have had,” Fullard adds.

“We still have 49 people who didn’t get home safely last year. Our focus is zero harm, every mineworker getting home safely every day,” said Fullard.

Indications of 100% collaboration by government, labour and business towards achieving zero harm were reportedly evident during this month’s release of the ...

The world is on a trajectory to reach 2.7°C of warming above pre-industrial levels, which is quite a long way mathematically from the 1.5°C that is required by the Paris Agreement.

This was pointed out by Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad, quoting independent sources such as Climate Action Tracker.

“It was a tough year with extreme weather. there are disruptions that we’re seeing more frequent in extreme weather events,” said Wanblad, following the release of the London- and Johannesburg-listed company’s second-highest set of 2022 financial result following its record performance in 2021.

Anglo had a level 3 water discharge incident at the Polokwane smelter in Limpopo.

The ponds that store the water for the circulation of operating water were relatively full owing to the smelter’s furnace being down.

Several days of multi-day storms then resulted in the water overflow.

“Lots to learn out of that,” said Wanblad.

Water constraints in Chile, where Anglo mines copper, have had to be mitigated at the Los Bronces mine.

In addition to extreme weather events are permitting issues across the world, grade declines and fiscal uncertainty.

“All of that is going to continue to serve to put an extraordinary amount of pressure on metals intensity and the use of the metals and minerals. The ‘so what’ of all of that is that it still feels that we are structurally headed towards higher pricing in the future."

The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on 12 December 2015. It entered into force on 4 November 2016.

Its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”

However, in recent years, world leaders have stressed the need to limit global warming to 1.5°C by the end of this century.

That’s because the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that crossing the 1.5°C threshold risks unleashing far more severe climate change impacts, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall.

To limit global warming to 1.5°C, greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline 43% by 2030.

The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations together to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.

Implementation of the Paris Agreement requires economic and social transformation, based on the best available science. The Paris Agreement works on a five-year cycle of increasingly ambitious climate action -- or, ratcheting up -- carried out by countries. Since 2020, countries have been submitting their national climate action plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Each successive NDC is meant to reflect an increasingly higher degree of ambition compared to the previous version.

Recognising that accelerated action is required to limit global warming to 1.5°C, COP27’s cover decision requests parties to strengthen the 2030 targets in their NDCs to align with the temperature goal by the end of 2023, taking into account different national circumstances.

Although climate change action needs to be massively increased to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, the years since its entry into force have already sparked low-carbon solutions and new markets. More and more countries, regions, cities and companies are establishing carbon neutrality targets. Zero-carbon solutions are becoming competitive across economic sectors representing 25% of emissions. This trend is most noticeable in the power and transport sectors and has created many new business opportunities for early movers.

By 2030, zero-carbon solutions could be competitive in sectors representing over 70% of global emissions.

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses Anglo American's renewable and green hydrogen projects; Minerals Council South Africa welcoming the 125% tax break for businesses investing in renewables; and the 14 000 jobs Amplats expects to be created through SA’s hydrogen corridor.

Diamond company De Beers last year delivered a revenue of $6.6-billion and earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of $1.4-billion built on operational excellence across its producing assets.

Rough diamond production increased by 7% to 34.6-million carats, reflecting strong operational performance and higher planned levels of production to meet continued strong demand for rough diamonds, particularly in the first half of the year.

“I'm really proud to present an excellent set of results for De Beers for 2022,” said De Beers Group CFO Sarah Kuijlaars in a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

“The great set of financial results is really a result of so much focused work from the 20 000 people that I work with within the De Beers family in a year of change.

“In addition to that very solid production, we're also investing a lot of time and effort in some of the more strategic movers.

“We've got an exploration contract in Angola, we've accelerated TracrTM, which is our platform securing the identity of all our diamonds going into the system.

“The Tracr platform now takes on about half the rough diamonds on every site, so it's really getting embedded in the way we do business as our consumers are raising expectations from day to day, from the provenance and the confidence that we, from De Beers and from Tracr, can give to our end consumers,” said Kuijlaars.

In Botswana, the Debswana joint venture had exceptional operational excellence and up time in the producing plants on both assets. Production was up 8% at 24.1-million carats on strong plant performances at Jwaneng and Orapa, as well as planned higher grade at Orapa.

In South Africa, Venetia diamond mine delivered outstanding carats ahead of its safe closure as an open pit, ahead of its transition to underground mining later this year. Production was up 4% at 5.5 million carats on the treatment of higher grade ore from the final open pit cut.

In Namibia, the new vessel, Benguela Gem, which came on stream ahead of schedule, and ahead of budget, contributed to a 46% uptick in production to 2.1 million carats, also bolstered by the treatment of higher-grade ore at the Namibian land operations.

However, Canada had a tougher year, with production decreasing by 11% to 2.8-million carats on lower grade ore and tight labour markets.

“It was very difficult to get people in and out, a very tight labour market, tight market with contractors, but the whole team is really focused on stabilising the performance there and contributing to 2023,” said Kuijlaars.

Mining Weekly: How strong has demand been in the US?

Kuijlaars: That’s a great question. I think it's easy to forget how strong the demand was at the beginning of 2022. There was a real pent-up demand, particularly in the US in the first quarter of 2022, but then, of course, sadly, a year ago, Russia invaded Ukraine, so a bit more uncertainty in the world, a bit more uncertainty around inflation, around cost of living. But through that, I think the demand has remained really robust, at about the same levels or just short of the of the same levels as 2021, which was really an outstanding year in terms of global demand. When we look at demand, an important part is in China and sadly 2022 was significantly impacted by Covid disruption with a lot of shutdowns in various cities in China, and understandably, luxury jewellery purchase wasn’t on the top of the list of our colleagues in China. India also had a very strong year in 2022.

How do you see the long-term fundamentals for diamonds?

It's great to see the resilience of diamond demand. We all know we're entering a period of a bit of uncertainty but we are cautiously optimistic that the resilience of the diamond market will continue. The natural diamond purchase is still very special to so many people around the globe, and longer term, we know that supply is limited and the demand will continue to grow, as our middle clas...

All policy in South Africa specifically relating to energy certainly does tend to be moving into a path of time and space where it really is incentivising the building out of renewable energy generation capacity in the country, said Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad on Thursday when the London- and Johannesburg-listed company reported its second- highest set of 2022 financial result following its record performance in 2021.

On the generation of renewable energy to alleviate South Africa’s electricity shortage, Wanblad said in response to Mining Weekly during a media conference: ‘We have 600 MW worth of projects keyed up ready to go at this particular point in time and quite a lot more on that 3 GW to 5 GW journey.

“I think the real issue here is the connection between policy, actual legislation and regulation, land acquisition, and permitting all have to be finalised as well the regulated tariff for access to grid and any wheeling that’s going to be required to make all of this work.

“But I’m very pleased with the way that things are being focused on at the moment and I think that widens the optionality tweaks around which some of this can be brought on stream,” said Wanblad.

Regarding green hydrogen implementation, he said the hydrogen truck, which was a prototype when launched in May last year, has been in the pit at Mogalakwena for a couple of months in an actual production application.

“So, it is presenting itself to the shovel, being loaded up and driving on the road with all the other trucks to the mine, getting wither to the product dump or the waste dump. Engineers are taking lots of data, and they are now in the process of designing the next version of this, which will come to trial in the next year or so, and that’s performing very, very well and exceeding our expectations.

“From the green hydrogen perspective itself, that is one of the areas that is developing also rather rapidly. The team is now working with the deployment of hydrogen either by gas or liquid to the truck and there are lots of players that are working with us to look at this. To the extent that this environment again becomes capacitating, there is opportunity to accelerate, and that’s what we’re looking to do,” added Wanbald.

Portfolio quality, diversification and growth support delivered underlying earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of $14.5-billion last year, Anglo stated in a release.

Other financial highlights for the year ended December 31 included profit attributable to equity shareholders of $4.5-billion, net debt of $6.9-billion involving cash generation offset by investment in value-adding growth, the Woodsmith polyhylite project in the UK impaired by $1.7-billion owing to extended development schedule and budget, designed to deliver maximum returns over long life of asset, the Quellaveco copper mine in Peru commissioned on time and on budget, with the multidecade copper operation ramping up; and a $0.9-billion final dividend, equal to $0.74 per share, consistent with Anglo’s 40% payout policy.

EXTREME WEATHER IMPACT

“We continued to feel the effects of dislocations in the global economy on our business in 2022 – in energy, and across supply chains and labour markets. Extreme weather has disrupted the lives of so many, with exceptional rainfall also setting back several of our operations, while the energy crisis caused policymakers to react to mitigate sharply higher inflation. With that backdrop, we built momentum during the year with our focus on regaining operational stability and targeted incremental performance improvement.

The underlying Ebitda of $14.5 billion is a 30% decrease compared with the record achieved in 2021, reflecting inflationary headwinds and higher energy prices combined with lower production volumes which, together, lifted our production costs amid dampened prices for many of our products.

The return on capital employed of 30% was twice the targeted 15% through-the-cycle return, an...

The world must do everything to fight inflation, says AngloGold Ashanti CEO Alberto Calderon, a former International Monetary Fund luminary, who has reported emphasised cost control in a year dominated by what the JSE-listed company described as the highest inflation rates in more than 40 years.

Higher-grade ore mined by AngloGold Ashanti in the third quarter of last year should have meant more gold at unchanged cost – more bang for the same buck, as it were.

But the current abnormally high level of inflation knocked back the potential benefits of 17% higher underground grades and 21% higher opencast grades.

But by continuing to shine the brightest of bright lights on inflation, AngloGold has managed to evade full impact.

On the complexity of inflation particularly to all mines, Calderon said: “If you look at the cash costs per ounce projected in 2021 and 2023, and you assume that there was no inflation, we would have been at around $900/oz in 2023, which would be quite competitive.

“In other words, in real terms, we have managed to decrease quite significantly. The problem is even more significant with all-in sustaining cost (AISC). In this metric, between 2021 and 2022, we decreased by 10% in real terms and we expect to decrease by another 2% between 2022 and 2023, taking the reductions in the AISC in real terms to 12% during these two years,” he added.

The higher grade and increased production did manage to stave off inflation’s full potential impact, with AngloGold’s total cash costs per ounce at a 6%-higher $1 024/oz for 2022 compared with $963/oz for 2021. The increase in AISC was limited to only 2% year-on-year to $1 383/oz in 2022, from $1 355/oz in 2021.

He described the high inflation of Argentina, where AngloGold Ashanti operates the Cerro Vanguardia gold and silver mine in the Santa Cruz province, as being more the exception than the rule.

The biggest driver is the combined $120/oz inflation cost of close to $40/oz for diesel.

“So, the good news is that if we continue to see the trend that we are seeing we should at least start coming down to earth, and that should help us,” Calderon said in response to Mining Weekly.

“There is generalised wage inflation and that’s probably the main driving force this year and that’s everywhere, that’s in Australia, the Americas, across the board.

“Last year we saw more diesel/commodities inflation and this year I would think wages is the biggest, quite spread out across the world.

“We have to do everything to fight inflation. In the end, inflation is all over. What we can do is really try to work on countering that inflation as much as we can and we have. With AISC we’re in the right direction. More efficiency and then hope that commodities like explosives, ammonia, gas, diesel go back to where they were in 2021,” said Calderon.

QUICKEST GROWTH

On the geography where AngloGold Ashanti is growing the quickest, Calderon said in response to Mining Weekly: “Interestingly enough, our quickest growth is in the US, in Nevada, and we’re particularly happy with Obuasi, in Ghana. Obuasi this year will hit a production record for such a magnificent orebody and it’s good news for us and Ghana.

“But in pure growth terms, it’s Nevada, where it’s quite startling that we can get into production so quickly and I think the exploration team did a fabulous job in opening the door and that was followed by some well-timed, relatively medium-sized and small-sized acquisitions, which have given us a footing that is going to be fundamental for the next decade.

"We'll talk much more about that this year. As we get more information and consolidate more information, we will be able to really get facts on this being very important growth for AngloGold.”

A $150-million agreement has been concluded with Coeur Mining to acquire its Coeur Sterling subsidiary, which owns properties next to AngloGold’s projects in the Beatty district of Nevada.

The properties include Coeur’s C-Horst, SNA, Secret Pass and Daisy o...

Production improvement and holding cost increases at half the inflation rate were achieved by gold mining company AngloGold Ashanti in 2022, when its mineral reserve additions exceeded depletion for the sixth consecutive year.

The mineral reserve increased by 3.5-million ounces pre-depletion with a total of 12.2-million ounces added over the last three years at a cost of $67/oz, highlighting AngloGold’s exploration success.

“We delivered on our production and cost commitments and have begun to regain cost competitiveness versus our peers,” AngloGold CEO Alberto Calderon, a former International Monetary Fund luminary, reported.

AngloGold last year introduced new members to its senior leadership team, and redesigned its operating model, as it progressed its strategy to narrow the cost gap with peers.

The Johannesburg- and New York-listed company has now started an asset optimisation programme while self-funding its successful exploration programmes and developing mining projects in Ghana and Nevada.

Gold production of 2.742-million ounces in the 12 months to December 31 was an 11% improvement, ending the year at the top half of guidance. Guidance for capital expenditure and all-in sustaining costs (AISC) was also met, while total cash costs ended less than 1% above the guidance range amid inflation at multi-decade highs.

The operational result was underpinned by solid performances across most of the portfolio, with the Obuasi gold mine in Ghana easily meeting targeted production of 250 000 oz by hitting the 300 000 oz mark as it continues to ramp up to 400 000-oz-plus, which is expected by the end of 2024.

Cost control was another highlight in a year dominated by the highest inflation rates in more than 40 years. Despite this, total cash costs per ounce increased 6% to $1 024/oz for 2022 compared with $963/oz for 2021. The increase in AISC was limited to only 2% year-on-year to $1 383/ oz in 2022, from $1 355/oz in 2021.

The company’s total recordable injury frequency rate of 1.26 injuries per million hours worked in 2022 improved, and remains considerably better than the average 2021 performance of 2.90 injuries per million hours worked by the members of the International Council on Metals and Minerals. No fatalities were recorded during 2022 at the mines operated by the company, for the second time in its history.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were marginally lower at $1.797-billion in 2022, from $1.801-billion in 2021. Free cash flow of $657-million was recorded, compared with $104-million in 2021. Funding capital expenditure, two property acquisitions in Nevada and paying an interim dividend has left the balance sheet intact with $2.5-billion in liquidity, including cash and cash equivalents of $1.1-billion at year-end, the company stated in a release to Mining Weekly.