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AngloGold Ashanti is a significant employer in many of the countries and regions in which it operates. In 2007, the group employed some 62,000 people, 77% permanent employees and 23% contractors. By far the majority are employed in South Africa (60%), followed by Ghana (12%), Brazil (7%), Tanzania (5%) and Guinea (5%).
Significant increases in employee complement were reported in Australia and Namibia owing to staffing up at the Boddington joint venture and the full impact of the revised shift arrangements at Sunrise Dam, and the full transition to owner mining at Navachab. In contrast, employee numbers declined in Ghana where restructuring continued at the Obuasi operation.
The group has in place a set of core business principles which governs its relationships with employees, employee associations and trade unions, neighbouring communities, regulatory authorities, suppliers and customers, and supports the company’s vision, mission and values. AngloGold Ashanti recognises these groups as stakeholders and business partners in its activities and seeks to reduce any potentially adverse effects of its operations and business. As a company with extensive mining and metallurgical processing operations, key areas of focus are the management of occupational health and safety, regional health, social and environmental impacts. More detailed disclosure on these may be found in the Report to Society 2007.
Every manager and employee takes responsibility for health and safety; and together strive to create workplaces that are free from occupational injury and illness.
The group’s safety performance was disappointing in 2007. While the fatal injury frequency rate (FIFR) was 4.5% lower year-on-year at 0.21 per million hours worked, the lost-time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) rose by 7% in 2007, to 8.24 per million hours worked.
An intensive review of the group’s safety strategy, particularly in South Africa, was undertaken during the year and the ‘Safety is our first value’ campaign was launched. Details of individual operational performance are reported in the Review of operations section.
On the occupational health front, noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), occupational lung disease (OLD) (including silicosis) and, in South Africa, pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) remain the most critical. Medical surveillance programmes are in place at most of the group’s operations with plans afoot to intensify efforts at a number of the African operations. No new occupational disease cases were reported in Brazil, Argentina, the US or Australia.
NIHL occurs over a period of time following consistent exposure to high levels of noise. Hearing conservation programmes comprise three features: engineering control to reduce noise at source, the use of hearing protection devices and medial surveillance. In South Africa, 78 employees were compensated for NIHL in 2007 (2006: 67 employees).
Exposure to silica dust is the major contributing factor in the development of OLD and efforts to reduce dust levels, improved dust monitoring and medical surveillance remain important in the programme to eliminate silicosis. During 2007, 207 cases of OLD were compensated in South Africa. Also in 2007, 462 new cases of silicosis were recorded in South Africa and submitted for compensation (2006: 367 new cases).
Some success has been achieved in reducing and managing TB in South Africa, where rigorous World Health Organization-based TB control programmes are in place. For the third consecutive year, TB statistics in South Africa declined, with 927 employees diagnosed with the disease. There is a strong relationship between TB and HIV/AIDS.
We provide our employees with opportunities to develop their skills while sharing risks and rewards in workplaces that promote innovation, teamwork and freedom with accountability. We embrace cultural diversity.
Certain human rights conventions, including those relating to freedom of association and collective bargaining, are entrenched within South African labour legislation and the South African constitution as well as in the laws and regulations of many of the countries in which the company operates. AngloGold Ashanti is committed to upholding the fundamental rights conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and no breaches of these conventions were alleged or reported during the year. As the company is a signatory to the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, human rights training, particularly for security personnel, is being undertaken.
A new global organisational development strategy is being implemented within the group. The strategy recognises the role of the individual as being a member of a family and a community and as an employee, and acknowledges the role of the company in supporting that and assisting the employee to reach his or her full potential. A key goal of this strategy is the promotion of diversity and localisation at all levels and all operations, enabling employees to take advantage of the extensive opportunities the group can offer.
The group’s Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) in South Africa has been fully implemented with more than 30,000 individuals now having an equity stake in the company. Discussions with the Ghana Mineworkers’ Union in respect of implementing a similar programme in that country are ongoing.
For a number of reasons, including legislation and customs, mining has not been a career easily accessible to women, AngloGold Ashanti has put plans in place in those countries where it has been necessary to ensure this attraction, retention, development and promotion of women. Key statistics related to women in the group at the end of 2007 are as follows:
* In South Africa, 9.1% of permanent employees are women.
Education and training initiatives to alleviate the skills shortage and develop employees to their full potential continued during the year and included Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET), bursary schemes and learnerships, support for tertiary education, management development programmes and executive development programmes.
We strive to form partnerships with host communities, sharing their environments, traditions and values. We want communities to be better off for AngloGold Ashanti having been there. We are committed to working in an environmentally friendly way.
The group’s relationships with communities are guided by operation- or region-specific community policies, and are complemented by a company-wide management system which is currently being fully implemented. Several modules in the community and social development systems, focusing largely on issues such as resettlement and compensation, human rights and security, and the preservation of cultural and sacred sites, were developed during the year, with further implementation planned for 2008.
The phenomenon of artisanal and small-scale mining, encountered particularly at the group’s operations and explorations prospects at Geita (Tanzania), Obuasi (Ghana), Siguiri (Guinea) and in the DRC, has on occasion given rise to conflict. During the year we continued to participate in the global debate on the matter and on the ground, in consultation with communities and other parties, we continue to explore sustainable opportunities for alternative livelihoods for small-scale miners. The group is developing a strategy that promotes cohabitation and mutual respect for each others’ rights, within the legal and regulatory framework within a country.
In terms of corporate social investment, AngloGold Ashanti contributed $7.7 million to corporate social investment (using a strict definition of the term that excludes sponsorships or the infrastructural developments attached to mining operations).
Group operations are required to play a meaningful role in the development of local economic activity in the interest of contributing towards the sustainability of host communities.
We are committed to prompt and supportive action in response to any major health threats in the regions in which we operate.
The primary regional health threats identified are HIV/AIDS in southern Africa, and malaria in west and east Africa.
In 2007, AngloGold Ashanti was recognised by a number of independent entities, non-government organisations and conferences for its work in delivering sustainable healthcare solutions in the communities in which it operates. In June 2007, the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC) identified the AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Malaria Control Programme as a global example of excellence in the private sector’s response to these three pandemics. AngloGold Ashanti also won three awards in the second annual ABSA Healthcare Initiative Awards held in August 2007, a part of the Pan African Health Congress, for its integrated HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis control programmes in South Africa, and for the malaria control programmes at its operations in east and west Africa, winning in the category of Listed Company/Multinational Organisation/Hospital Group, as well as the Most Sustainable Project award and the award for Project with the Biggest Impact.
The estimated HIV/AIDS prevalence levels at the group’s African operations are in line with similar demographically segmented portions in the general population. It is estimated that the HIV/AIDS prevalence levels among employees at the South African operations in 2007 remained stable at around 30% of the workforce.
Key objectives of the group HIV/AIDS programme are to minimise the risk of HIV/AIDS on the company and its employees by reducing and ultimately eliminating new infections, efficiently managing those infected and supporting those with advanced AIDS. The programme focuses on:
Total expenditure on the company’s HIV/AIDS programme in South Africa amounted to approximately R25.2 million ($3.6 million) in 2007 (2006: R21.5 million; $3.2 million).
Malaria remains an area of concern for AngloGold Ashanti’s operations in Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Tanzania. Not only does the disease result in death, illness and absenteeism among employees, but it is a major cause of death in young children and pregnant women, with an obvious effect on employees’ families and communities.
An extensive malaria programme is in place at Obuasi and the lessons learnt here are being applied elsewhere. A revised integrated malaria control programme began at Geita in Tanzania in September 2007, with indoor residual spraying of the Mchaura staff village and all mine vehicles. Work began during the year on the development of an integrated campaign at Siguri in Guinea, modelled on the programme at Obuasi.
The incidence of malaria has continued to decline at Obuasi following the third year of the integrated malaria control campaign, from 164 per 1,000 employees in 2006 to 61 in 2007.
We strive to form partnerships with host communities, sharing their environments, traditions and values. We want communities to be better off for AngloGold Ashanti having been there.
As a member of the International Council on Mining and Metals, AngloGold Ashanti subscribes to the sustainable development framework and its principles for sustainable development, and is committed to publicly reporting. During the year, the group produced a set of five environmental guidelines to be used in conjunction with the group’s environmental policy. These guidelines cover the management of water, air quality, waste material, chemicals and land. A number of other guidelines are currently under consideration and will be produced as and when required.
All AngloGold Ashanti operations have had their environmental management systems certified in conformance with the ISO 14001 standard, and all the requisite permits for their current operations are in place. AngloGold Ashanti Health (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of the company that provides healthcare services to employees in South Africa, was also recommended for certification.
In line with increasingly stringent governance and risk management requirements at a company level, AngloGold Ashanti initiated a corporate environmental review programme during the year.
The programme reviewed whether all significant environmental aspects had been identified and whether appropriate monitoring systems had been established to manage these aspects, including suitable monitoring systems.
Closure plans, which are reviewed and updated annually, are in place at all operations. These take into account operational conditions, planning and legislative requirements, international protocols, technological developments and advances in good practice. In addition, an assessment of closure liabilities is undertaken and reviewed on an annual basis and, increasingly reviewed and assured by independent third parties.
A key performance objective for 2007 was the implementation of the International Cyanide Management Code for the Manufacture, Transport and Use of Cyanide in the Production of Gold (the Cyanide Code). The code is a voluntary industry initiative developed under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme to promote responsible management of cyanide used in gold mining, to enhance the protection of human health, and reduce the potential for environmental impacts. AngloGold Ashanti was one of the first signatories to the code in November 2005 and, in line with this, committed to having all of its operations audited by an independent third party to demonstrate its compliance with the code.
In addition to participating in the global debate on climate change and its potential impacts, AngloGold Ashanti has considered its position, evaluating both risks and opportunities in respect of climate change, and embarking on a process of establishing its carbon footprint and its greenhouse gas emissions. In 2007, AngloGold Ashanti participated in the global Carbon Disclosure Project’s, survey of the top 40 companies listed on the JSE. CDP is a global institutional investor collaboration intent on understanding and quantifying climate change implications for business. AngloGold Ashanti’s response may be found at www.cdproject.net.
AngloGold Ashanti Annual Report 2007 – Annual Financial Statements