AngloGold Ashanti, Obuasi Mine will resume underground production this month due to the completion of a review of the area to promote safety.
The mine is said to contain thirty ounces of gold which can be mined for more than two decades.
On October 15, 2021, gold was sold for more than $1,700 an ounce on the spot.
Managing Director of AngloGold Ashanti-Obuasi Mine, Eric Asubonteng, said the increasing pace of production after the mine’s first and second phases of redevelopment was interrupted due to the recent fall of ground in May 2021.
“We expect to reach steady-state production of about 4,000 tonnes per day (tpd) mined and milled by mid-2022. Phase three of the project will continue this year up to 2023 to set up the infrastructure needed to sustain production in deeper areas of the mine towards the northern areas into the future,” a statement from him said.
Eric Asubonteng also said the Obuasi Mine since its return has contributed greatly to the country’s economy and also the host of communities that the mine can be found in has benefited greatly from the mine.
“Since the inception of the redevelopment project, the mine has spent about $880 million in its operations, with 80 per cent of the money spent on Ghanaian owned companies and businesses,” he said.
He stated that the company had employed 3,859 people, 850 of them are direct employees while the remaining 3,000 were engaged by contractors with only two per cent of employees being expatriates.
The Managing Director of AngloGold Ashanti-Obuasi mines mentioned that through the company’s social management plan, community projects such as those on the Obuasi campus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the construction of the 1.3-km Kunka-Dankwa Junction road and a maternity block at the Obuasi Government Hospital had been carried out.
Other projects included the construction of a training and rehabilitation centre for disabled people and the construction of a three-bed intensive care unit at the Obuasi Government Hospital.
Asubonteng also thanked President Nana Akufo-Addo for “continuing to take interest in the progress of the Obuasi Mine”.
The President visited the mine during his recent tour of the Ashanti Region.