AngloGold Ashanti has for the first time in its 100-year history gone 110 days without a death at its mines, which employ 60 000 people globally.

CEO Mark Cutifani said that this was an important milestone that demonstrated that “we can operate in South Africa without fatalities”, but that the company still had some way to go.

“We are very proud of that achievement, and in particular what’s been achieved in South Africa,” he said after presenting the company’s results for the quarter ended June 30.

“While we are making significant improvements, we’ve still got a long way to go to be where we want to be.”

AngloGold Ashanti operates some of the deepest mines in the world in South Africa, the country in which over 200 miners died last year – many of them in deep-level gold mines.

Cutifani said that the company had reduced the fatality rate at its South African operations by 75% since it introduced the “safety is our first value” campaign in November, which was his second month as CEO of Africa’s biggest gold producer.

When he took over from now Eskom chairperson Bobby Godsell, Cutifani made it clear that there had to be a safety step change in AngloGold Ashanti.

“As CEO, I take full responsibility and accountability for safety management and, together with every employee of the company, we will strengthen our partnerships in creating a new standard upon which we will manage together and for each other,” he said at the time.

He described mining safely at depth as “the most important issue facing us in the gold mining industry in South Africa”.

There was, however, one death at AngloGold Ashanti’s TauTona mine shortly after the end of the quarter, with a worker being killed in a seismic event.

Cutifani said that this was a reminder that there was still a long way to go towards zero-harm.

To subscribe to Mining Weekly's print magazine email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or buy now.