Safety and health

About 12,000 AngloGold Ashanti employees at the TauTona, Great Noligwa, Moab Khotsong and Tau Lekoa mines are participating in the largest-ever TB research programme undertaken in the South African mining industry.

The Thibela TB programme, which was launched towards the end of 2005, is being funded by the South African Mine Health and Safety Council and the International Consortium to respond effectively to the AIDS/TB Epidemic (CREATE). See case study: TB control at AngloGold Ashanti Health – applying best practice. The programme is being conducted and overseen by the South African Medical Research Council and the Aurum Institute for Health Research (a member of CREATE and formerly AngloGold Ashanti Health's internal research initiative). African gold mining companies, labour unions and associations have collaborated with the Thibela programme, and the study has the support of various government departments, including Labour, Health and Minerals and Energy.

The aim of the programme is to establish whether administering TB preventive therapy (in addition to standard TB control) is more effective than the standard TB control alone. The programme also provides preventive therapy to individuals at high risk of developing TB, as is the case with underground gold miners working in dusty environments. If successful, such a programme would radically reduce TB transmission between people, which would lead to fewer TB cases occurring later, thus resulting in improved control of the disease. TB is often a complicating factor in HIV & AIDS and silicosis cases too.

The process of enrolling consenting individuals in TB preventive therapy began in July 2006 and will be completed by April 2009. By the end of 2008, roughly 12,000 individuals had consented to participate in the programme. In total, around 70,000 South African miners will be involved in the study. The study is expected to take five years to complete, therefore it is too soon to report any preliminary results, but progress has been good. An additional $13.6 million was obtained from CREATE in October 2008 to complete the study. The final results are expected to be available in early 2012.

The Thibela TB programme is part of a global research programme to reduce the incidence of TB, in the face of an escalating rate of infection. TB control in the South African gold mining industry is proving increasingly difficult, despite the implementation of control programmes exceeding World Health Organisation standards. Similar studies are being conducted by CREATE in high-risk communities in Zambia and Brazil.

According to Professor Gavin Churchyard, CEO of the Aurum Institute for Health Research and principal investigator for the study, “If successful, this study will demonstrate that it is possible to control TB in settings where HIV is prevalent and will serve as a model to control TB in other settings with high rates of TB transmission and HIV.”

TB has a high social and economic cost, both for the individual concerned and the industry as a whole. The onset of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa coincided with a four-fold increase in the rates of TB, which has serious implications both for the country and the gold mining industry. Historically, because of the increased risk of TB in silica-exposed gold miners, TB is considered an occupational disease in South Africa. Improved employee health would lead to improved quality of life, improved productivity and much-reduced healthcare costs.