Environment

Obuasi’s action plan to attend to environmental issues following its 12 day temporary closure by the Ghanaian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2007 is making progress, though it became necessary to reach an agreement with the EPA on an extension of the final implementation date. The 100 year old Obuasi mine is characterised by significant environmental issues of historic origins, as well as current challenges.

After several revisions, the final completion date has been set as 30 June 2009, just under two years from the closure notice. This revised deadline is the end result of a series of negotiations and discussions between the mine and the EPA. The time required to implement meaningful long term solutions had been initially underestimated, which led to slow progress and under delivery on the promised objectives.

By the end of 2008, the most critical outstanding issue was the final commissioning of a process water treatment plant – a commitment undertaken as part of the response to the EPA’s concerns. Some significant sections of the plant were completed during the year, including the Carbon-in Solution unit (CIS) and Rotating Biological Contactors. Final commissioning of this plant was scheduled to begin in February 2009.

These corrective actions are some of the steps AngloGold Ashanti has taken as a result of Obuasi Mine’s two metallurgical plants’ closure in September 2007 by the EPA. More detail about the closure can be found in the 2007 case study “Programme to deal with environmental legacy issues at Obuasi”.

As described in the 2007 case study, the closure of the Sansu and Pompora Tailings Storage Facilities (TSF) and all ancillary facilities was the result of complaints from the EPA regarding the discharge of untreated process water into the environment. The process water, which had levels of arsenic and cyanide that exceeded the EPA’s guidelines, was being discharged from the Sansu TSF, into the local River Nyam. Other issues also raised in the EPA’s notice included additional process water discharge, which had led to the pollution of another local water body, the Kwabrafo stream. The Sansu TSF is on the southern side of the Obuasi operation and decants into the Sansu Holding Pond. The Pompora TSF is on the northern side of the operation and feeds into the Treatment Tailings Plant. The northern operations have affected the Kwabrafo stream through the occasional discharge of process water.

Following the closure, many of the EPA concerns were addressed:

• The initial action was to stop the water discharge contaminating both rivers.
• Further progress has been made during 2008 in reducing water discharges into the River Nyam and Kwabrafo stream, to very occasional incidents during peak rainfall periods.
• Cyanide detoxification systems have been installed to mitigate any possible discharges that might occur.
• A catchment restoration project has been initiated for the Kwabrafo stream.

While short-term solutions have been implemented during 2008, sustainable solutions remain a challenge and an area of concern. The complexity, resources, time and skills required to successfully execute many of the targets set is only beginning to be understood by all parties involved. On 1 September 2008, a team from AngloGold Ashanti discussed a time extension with the EPA’s Chief Executive Officer in order to allow sufficient time to implement sustainable solutions to the remaining issues. Proposed action plans were later submitted to the EPA for scrutiny and approval, and the final completion date was revised from 30 September 2008 to 30 June 2009.

Two issues which still need to be addressed are the construction of the two new Tailings Storage Facilities and the completion of the water treatment plant.

AngloGold Ashanti continues to address these issues and engage with the Ghanaian EPA in meeting these requirements and deadlines.