JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The world’s second-largest gold producer, AngloGold Ashanti, would have “much improved” gold price leverage and balance sheet flexibility in 2009, CEO Mark Cutifani said on Monday.

He noted that the company had a strong platform going into 2009, following the 2008 “transformational year”.

The gold miner on Monday reported an adjusted headline loss of $17-million for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2008, and a loss of $897-million for the year ended December 2008.

The company said in a statement that the loss for the quarter was after annual accounting adjustments of $38-million, which had included write-downs of Geita stockpiles worth $19-million, $21-million for stores and $8-million for current and deferred tax provisions.

This was an improvement on the adjusted loss of $119-million reported in the third quarter ended September 30, 2008, but down on the $278-million adjusted headline earnings for the year ended December 2007.

Meanwhile, gold production for the fourth quarter remained steady at around 1,27-million ounces.

Total cash costs had improved to $422/oz for the quarter, owing to higher production and currency exposure, as about 66% of AngloGold Ashanti’s costs were in non-US dollar-based environments.

Production for the year was, however, down by 9% to 4,98-million ounces, compared with 5,48-million ounces the year before.

This was mainly as a result of a 230 000 oz decline in production from South Africa, owing to the power constraints placed on miners early in 2008, and a decline of 167 000 oz at Sunrise Dam, in Australia, owing to the completion of the high-grade zone in the MegaPit.

Further, production at the Geita operation, in Tanzania, was down 63 000 oz, as a result of mill breakdowns, while production at Cerro Vanguardia, in Argentina, was down 50 000 oz, owing to lower feed grades.

However, production in Ghana had increased, while production in Brazil had remained solid.

AngloGold Ashanti had, during the fourth quarter, also reduced its hedge commitments to 5,99-million ounces, compared with 6,3-million ounces the year before.

Going forward, the company expected to produce between 4,9-million ounces and 5-million ounces of gold in 2009.

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