Johannesburg-based AngloGold said production excluding Cuiaba - where the processing plant is being suspended - is expected between 2.45 million ounces and 2.6 million ounces of gold in 2023.
AngloGold produced 2.742 million ounces of gold last year.
The miner said it had temporarily stopped adding mine waste
to its Calcinados tailings storage dam in Cuiaba, Brazil, to
bring the dam in line with a Canadian safety standard it said
was best practice in the industry.
"Tailings dams are something that we all agree cannot fail,
period," Chief Executive Officer Alberto Calderon said on a call
with reporters. Tailings dams store toxic waste produced when
separating minerals from waste rock.
AngloGold expects the Cuiaba mine to produce 180,000 ounces
this year, down 25% from 2022.
CEO Calderon said he could not yet give a timeline for the engineering work on the dam. The Calcinados dam was safe, stable, and compliant with Brazilian regulations, the company said. AngloGold's headline earnings per share for 2022 fell by 12% to 129 U.S. cents per share, in the middle of the guidance range the company gave last week.
AngloGold produced 2.742 million ounces in 2022, an 11% improvement on the previous year as it managed to keep costs under control despite surging inflation. The company's all-in sustaining costs – a measure of the overall cost of mining – increased by 2% year over year, while total cash costs per ounce increased by 6%. (Reporting by Helen Reid and Nelson Banya in Johannesburg and Muhammed Husain in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
