Running a mining business in the current negative environment has been likened to running up an escalator the wrong way. With prices down and costs up, mining companies go flat out to stay in the same place. “But at least it’s keeping us fit,” AngloGold Ashanti CEO Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan (Venkat) joked at a media roundtable attended by Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly. Financial fitness is evident at AngloGold, which in the last two-and-half years has lowered debt and cut costs relentlessly. Total cash costs guided for the year have been bettered to a potential $720/oz and all-in sustainable costs to a possible $950/oz.