AngloGold to scour seabeds for gold

Allan Seccombe | Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:27
[miningmx.com] -- ANGLOGOLD Ashanti is teaming up with De Beers to search for gold and other minerals in the ocean, with the world’s third-largest gold group stumping up initial capital of $40m over the first three years to earn into the venture.

“The joint venture’s activities will be focused on marine deposits located in, or adjacent to, the area between the high water mark and the edge of the continental shelf on a worldwide basis,” AngloGold said in a statement on Monday.

De Beers, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds, has marine exploration and diamond extraction expertise, particularly off South Africa’s west coast.

It is understood that during its search for diamonds, De Beers has found potentially interesting targets and approached AngloGold to form a partnership. De Beers, which has spent a lot of money in its search for diamonds off South Africa's coast and elsewhere, will provide data and equipment for the joint venture and AngloGold the money.

“The establishment of this joint venture will allow AngloGold Ashanti to take first-mover advantage of the opportunity of partnering with a world leader in the field of marine exploration and mining with a view to target the exploration for, and mining of, the target minerals from mineral deposits located on the continental shelf,” AngloGold said.

What AngloGold is proposing is not new. A company called Nautilus Minerals is proposing mining copper, zinc and gold off Papua New Guinea. Interestingly, the Nautilus website lists Anglo American as one of its three large shareholders, having invested $35m for an 11% stake in the AIM- and TSX-traded company.

Anglo is a 45% shareholder in De Beers. It recently sold out its remaining stake in AngloGold Ashanti.

“By building on our current terrestrial exploration, development and mining activities globally we’ll work to expand our resource base from an exciting array of shallow marine prospects,’’ said AngloGold CEO Mark Cutifani.

The agreement entails the formation of a technical services company called Techco, which will be jointly owned by AngloGold and De Beers.

AngloGold will solely fund Techco’s work for the first three sampling seasons up to end-2012 to the value of $40m.

Once that’s done, “AngloGold Ashanti will have earned-in to equivalent interests to De Beers in all the sub-joint venture opportunities pursued under the joint venture.”

The exploration will target gold and other minerals excluding diamonds, unless diamonds are found together with those other minerals.