A two-day workshop aimed at harnessing technology to eliminate malaria kicked off on February 10th at Palms by Eagle in Accra, Ghana.
The event, themed “From Mapping to Action: Tech-Enabled LSM for Malaria Elimination,” brings together experts from 13 African countries.
The workshop focuses on Larval Source Management (LSM), a key malaria intervention, and explores how tech tools like drone mapping, AI detection, and satellite data can make LSM more scalable and efficient.
Participants will learn best practices in LSM, identify breeding sites using drones and satellites, classify risk using AI, and plan interventions through micro-planning.
The event is hosted by Ghana’s National Malaria Elimination Program in collaboration with AngloGold Ashanti, SORA Technology, and Zzapp Technology, with support from JICA and WHO.
AngloGold Ashanti says it is working to strengthen the climate resilience of its business and value chain partners, host communities and the environment in which it operates.
In a statement, the miner said: “Our Climate Change Strategy aims to deliver measurable progress, focus our actions, and demonstrate our commitment to proactive, holistic, sustained and transparent action on climate change.”
To achieve this, AngloGold Ashanti said its Climate Change Strategy adheres to five key Principles that include, “Seeking to ensure that our core values are upheld through actions arising from the Climate Change Strategy, maintaining external commitments where we are a signatory, including the ICMM’s Mining Principles, the ICMM’s Position Statement, the WGC’s Responsible Gold Mining Principles and the UNGC; taking a holistic, long-term, life-of-mine and systemic approach to managing climate risks that include aspects beyond the fence line, supply chains, communities and ecosystems; using the latest science-based data, information and knowledge to support decision-making and disclosing in line with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).”
AngloGold Ashanti noted that its roadmap to Net Zero by 2050 is embedded within its strategy and comprises three stages:
1. Target 100% clean electricity (>70% green) including wind, solar, hydrogen, and battery, combined with new storage technologies.
2. Eliminate the use of fossil fuels and adopt 100% electrification. This will include the adoption of electric material movement technology (conveyors, railveyors, trolley assist, battery technology), and energy efficiency initiatives and will be supported by innovative approaches (such as in situ leaching).
3. Use carbon offsets if necessary and as a last resort, particularly where this could support local communities.
Decarbonisation journey
AngloGold Ashanti noted that it has set an interim target of cutting Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 through a combination of renewable energy projects and initiatives which improve efficiency or use lower-emission power sources.
“We have taken significant steps towards this target with the start of our renewable energy project at Tropicana in Australia and switching to the national power grid at Geita in Tanzania.”
In Australia, the miner noted that subsidiary AngloGold Ashanti Australia entered into an agreement with Pacific Energy to build one of the largest renewable energy projects in Australia’s natural resource sector.
It added that the construction of this hybrid wind, solar and battery storage facility will be the first of its kind to be implemented by the company and will reduce our average carbon emissions by more than 65,000 tonnes per annum over the 10-year life of the Power Purchase Agreement.
At the Geita Gold Mine in Tanzania, AngloGold Ashanti mentioned that a switch diesel generation is being replaced with grid power sourced with a more environmentally friendly combination of energies, including hydropower and natural gas.
The mine is drawing power from a new on-mine substation linked to Tanzania’s national power grid. The switch will result in an estimated 80% reduction in fuel consumption.
AngloGold Ashanti plc and the University of Witwatersrand (Wits University) have announced a bespoke scholarship project that will benefit about 200 eligible students over the next five to seven years, the first 68 of whom have been selected to begin their studies in 2024.
The R87.5 million Wits AngloGold Ashanti Legacy Scholarship Endowment will offer comprehensive funding and support over the duration of their studies to eligible students from disadvantaged and rural families with links to the mining industry and AngloGold Ashanti’s former gold mines in South Africa.
Students can select to complete their undergraduate or postgraduate studies in high-impact areas where critical skills are required, including health and advanced medicine, engineering, education, technology, science, law and the social sciences at Wits University.
The scholarship is part of a larger investment in legacy projects in education and agriculture that AngloGold Ashanti will carry out over the next five years to recognise the company’s commitment to South Africa, its employees and its communities.
“We are proud to honour our South African heritage by investing to enhance the future of these communities through our legacy projects,” said AngloGold Ashanti CEO Alberto Calderon. “Education changes lives for the better and the Wits AngloGold Ashanti Legacy Scholarship Endowment reflects our commitment to South Africa and development in the regions that have contributed to our journey.”
The aim of the scholarship is to build the future for a select cohort of students and more broadly to improve the support available to students to enable their success.
“Wits University is committed to working with AngloGold Ashanti to advance high-level scholarships, research and innovation in South Africa, in order to address future challenges,” says Prof. Zeblon Vilakazi, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits University.
“This partnership will impact on society in multiple ways – it will lay a path to success for young talented students, it will benefit the University and the higher education sector, it will uplift communities and advance society.”
Funding will be utilised for both undergraduate and postgraduate students and is anticipated to run in parallel with a mentoring programme hosted by AngloGold Ashanti volunteers in certain areas of study.
AngloGold Ashanti has its roots in South Africa and the company remains committed to supporting communities that have deep links to the country’s mining industry.
AngloGold Ashanti and Wits University share a deep, intertwined history, jointly playing a major role in the development of South Africa’s mining industry over the past century.
The Wits AngloGold Ashanti Legacy Scholarship Endowment announcement follows the 21 June announcement by AngloGold Ashanti and the University of Fort Hare about the establishment of the AngloGold Ashanti Chair in Dairy Science and Technology at UFH.
Chris Griffith, former Chief Executive Officer of Goldfields, has hinted that, the joint venture proposal between Goldfields Tarkwa and Anglogold Iduaprim he started before quitting has failed.
Gold Fields in 2022 announced joint ventures with AngloGold Ashanti in Ghana and another with Osisko Metals in Canada.
“All those things didn’t happen one or two months after I left. They were started well into my time,” he said in a recent interview published in the Financial Mail.
Implementation of the proposed joint venture (JV) between Gold Fields and AngloGold Ashanti, aimed to create Africa’s largest gold mine in Ghana, was to start by the end of 2023 or at least early 2024.
This is subject to agreement with the Government of Ghana, conclusion of all due diligence processes, and requisite regulatory approvals.
However, according to Economy Times investigation, Goldfields had stayed back from the deal because the government is demanding an upfront tax payment for five years period. Several phone calls to the Goldfields Ghana Head Office based in Accra to speak to get confirmation on the matter through the official telephone number was not successful.
The JV, was to combine Gold Fields’ Tarkwa Mine and AngloGold Ashanti’s Iduapriem Mine, to be incorporated within Gold Fields Ghana. This would be supported by a substantial mineral endowment and an initial life span of almost two decades.
The Tarkwa Mine is currently 90 percent owned by Gold Fields Ghana, with the Government of Ghana holding the remaining 10 percent. The Iduapriem Mine, meanwhile, is 100 percent owned by AngloGold Ashanti.
“It’s hard to offer an exact timeline, given that this will involve detailed discussions with the government and requires regulatory approvals, but we hope to be able to implement the transaction by the end of 2023 or early next year at the latest,” a statement issued by the two parties said in part.
The Executive Vice President and Head of Gold Fields West Africa, Joshua Mortoti, during a press briefing in Accra, said the proposed JV would improve life of mine, ensure business efficiency and operational synergy through combining respective ore bodies and infrastructure for the benefit of shareholders and stakeholders.
“We are extremely excited about the opportunity to create a mining entity with the potential to become the largest gold mine in Africa, delivering safe, sustainable and profitable production over the long term by combining two parts of the same world-class ore body,” Mr. Mortoti stated.
“We will do this by leveraging the operating efficiency advantage at Tarkwa, due to its scale, to unlock higher gold grades at lduapriem and maximising production across both processing plants,” he added.
Excluding the interest held by the Government of Ghana, Gold Fields would have a 66.7 percent interest in the joint venture. AngloGold Ashanti would have a 33.3 percent interest. However, it is proposed that once the requisite approvals are received, the Government of Ghana will have a stake of around 10 percent in the JV, Gold Fields will have 60 percent, and AngloGold will have 30 percent.
It is not expected that any material additional capital injection will be required by either company to establish the proposed JV as the new venture is anticipated to materially improve its capital intensity once operational.
The new entity is estimated to have a life of at least 18 years, with an estimated average annual production of almost 900koz over the first five years and average annual production in excess of 600koz over the estimated life of the operation.
The ore reserves for the proposed joint venture are expected to exceed the sum of the ore reserves for the stand-alone operations due to anticipated operational synergies and the declaration of additional mineral resources and ore reserves.
“Gold Fields and AngloGold Ashanti share a long history in Ghana and are committed to working collaboratively to operate a world-class gold mine. This creates a platform to develop the substantial mineral endowment at Tarkwa and lduapriem,” Mr. Mortoti highlighted.
Also, the Managing Director of AngloGold Ashanti Ghana, Eric Asubonteng, believd through the creation of one of the world’s largest gold operations on the back of the proposed JV – in a pre-eminent mining jurisdiction – there will be a creation of a longer-term value not only for AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields, but for the combined stakeholders.
“This proposed joint venture manages to capture true synergies in a commercially sensible way, by removing the fence between two halves of the same deposit and managing their operations and infrastructure under a single structure,” Mr. Asubonteng said.
“We expect that reserves of the proposed joint venture will exceed the sum of the reserves for the stand-alone operations, given the extent of the anticipated operational synergies,” he added.
