TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Top-three gold-miner AngloGold Ashanti is hopeful of a positive breakthrough in the coming weeks on permitting for its lucrative 12,3-million ounce La Colosa gold deposit in Colombia, CEO Mark Cutifani said on Monday.

Drilling at the wholly owned project was suspended for the entire fourth quarter, because of environmental permitting “issues”, AngloGold said in its quarterly and annual review.

The company has not provided further details on what issues need to be resolved, but Reuters reported in December that Colombia's Auditor General had recommended that the government deny permission for the mine because it would be located in an environmentally-sensitive area.

Despite the roadblock, Cutifani said the group remained “very excited” about the La Colosa resource.

The miner has been making public presentations to local communities on its plans for the project, and is in discussions with the government “as we speak”.

“We would hope to see something positive in the next few weeks with respect to the next step in the environmental work,” he said on a conference call.

Once the permitting issue is resolved, the company plans to start drilling some additional targets immediately surrounding the La Colosa mineralisation, four of which are now drill-ready.

It will also continue to work on building relations and communicating with the local communities.

“And those elements will come together to give us an indicative timeline", for the project going forward, Cutifani said.

Besides the massive resource already delineated, the La Colosa mineral system remains open to the north, south and east, and it's expected to play a starring role in the company's production growth plans.

AngloGold, Africa's biggest miner of the yellow metal, could be producing somewhere in the region of 700 000 oz/y to 1,5-million ounces a year from La Colosa within the next five years, Cutifani said on Monday.

Mainly thanks to the May announcement of the La Colosa resource, the group increased its total mineral resources last year by 3,4-million ounces, after depletion, from 207,6-million ounces at year-end in 2007, to 241,0-million ounces in 2008.

AngloGold is also exploring elsewhere in Colombia with partner B2Gold, a Canada-based junior that has operator status at the advanced Gramalote project, which is owned in joint-venture between the two.

Last year, AngloGold agreed to swap its interest in several other exploration properties in Colombia for a 15,9% stake in the Vancouver-based company, but opted to retain its direct holding in Gramalote.

Johannesburg-based AngloGold, which, as of February 3, boasts the distinction of owning the world's deepest mine, mines gold in South Africa, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Tanzania, Argentina, Brazil and the US.