Name: Sadiola mine.

Location: The mine is situated in western Mali, 77 km to the south of the regional capital of Kayes and about 440 km north-west of the capital city of Bamako.

Controlling Company: Société d’Exploitation des Mines d’Or de Sadiola or SEMOS, is a joint venture between AngloGold Ashanti (41%), Iamgold Corporation (41%) and the Mali government (18%).

Brief Description: The Sadiola gold mine includes a main pit, which is now exhausted, and several smaller satellite pits, a processing plant, a tailings storage facility and other infrastructure such as a mine village, water supply system, roads, airstrip and communications systems. Since mining started at the operation, mining activities have been outsourced, with all other activities on site performed by the mine contractor.

Brief History: Sadiola has a history of alluvial gold workings, dating back to the eleventh century.

Iamgold acquired the rights to the concession and explored the area in 1991/92; Anglo American entered into an earn-in option to the property in 1993. A feasibility study (FS) was completed on this property in 1994 and accepted by the Mali government.

Construction started in 1995 and first gold was poured in December 1996.

Iamgold and AngloGold announced in November 2009 that they were acquiring the International Finance Corporation’s 6% interest for $14.5-million.

In 2011, the FS on the sulphide project to expand the processing facility to treat hard rock at Sadiola in conjunction with soft rock was completed. Long-lead items were bought before the global financial crisis that placed the project into care and maintenance.

Products: Gold and gold by-products.

Geology/Mineralisation: The Sadiola gold deposits are located within the Malian portion of the Keniéba-Kedougou inlier, a major early Paleoproterozoic-Birimian window along the north-east margin of the Kenema-Man shield. The deposits are in the north of the inlier and positioned in the Kofi formation, just east of the Senegalo-Malian shear zone terrane boundary. Regional metamorphism is to greenschist facies, with amphibolite facies metamorphism observed in the contact aureoles around major intrusions.

The Sadiola gold system displays the Sadiola Hill-style gold/ arsenic/antimony mineralisation. Within the Sadiola main pit, the bulk of the ore is hosted within the brittle-ductile Sadiola fracture zone and impure footwall carbonates. Mineralisation also occurs along the array of north-north-east-trending shears, although gold grade decreases with increasing distance from the Sadiola fracture zone.

Mineralisation is shear-hosted and associated with a polyphase hydrothermal alteration history, comprising an early calc-silicate phase followed by a potassic alteration stage. The metal associa- tions of the ore typically comprise gold/arsenic/antimony and minor to trace amounts of copper, tungsten, molybdenum, silver, bismuth, zinc, lead, tellurium and iron-bearing mineral species.

Structural controls on primary mineralisation in the FE satellite pits are no different from those of Sadiola, but later karstification and protracted weathering resulted in the formation of a gold residuum. Lithostratigraphic contacts also appear to have been an efficient interface for channeling fluids.

Reserves: Proven and probable reserves as at December 31, 2015, were estimated at 25.31-million tonnes, grading 2.07 g/t of gold.

Resources: Exclusive mineral resources as at December 31, 2015, were estimated at 30.30-million tonnes, grading 1.58 g/t of gold.

Mining Method: Mining is undertaken by contractor Aveng Moolmans and monitored by Wenco Fleet Management System 24/7.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Ore is treated in a 4.8-million- tonne a year carbon-in-pulp processing plant. The plant was originally designed to treat only soft oxide ore, but has been progressively adapted to include a blend of hard oxides, as well as batch-feeding of a sulphide ore blend. Any hard material constituting the blends undergoes preconditioning through primary crushers.

The Sadiola sulphite project (SSP) aims to mine the underlying sulphide material in the Sadiola main pit and modify the existing oxide plant to process the sulphide ore. The modified plant will treat sulphide stockpiles and the run-of-mine sulphide material. This project will extend the life of Sadiola and leverage any further sulphide exploration successes in the region.

Prospects: The SSP remains the only major AngloGold Ashanti project in Mali and is the focus for the extension of the life-of-mine plan. The project is being re-evaluated and optimised in light of the current economic climate. The SSP comprises a new pushback in the Sadiola main pit to mine the underlying sulphide ore and modify the processing plant to be able to treat it. This project will extend the life of Sadiola and will leverage any further sulphide exploration successes in the region.

Contact Person: Senior VP investor relations and group communications – global, Stewart Bailey.

Contact Details:
AngloGold Ashanti,
tel + 27 11 637 6000,
email sbailey@anglogoldashanti.com, and
website http://www.anglogoldashanti.com.