Gold will top $1,000 on US economy and fundamentals - Nick Holland, CEO Gold Fields

In an interview on Summit TV @ 14:45 on 9 May 2008

[miningmx.com] -- THE gold price can top $1,000/oz because of the US economy and supply/demand fundamentals, said Nick Holland, CEO of Gold Fields.

"I’m bullish on the gold price - I think it can certainly go over $1,000 an ounce. I’m really bullish," Holland said on Summit Business, a daily television broadcast.

"The US economy still needs to be corrected, and certainly there are going to be some changes there - I think the dollar probably is the only that that economy can respond because clearly monetary policy is going the other way," he said.

"The natural consequence is that there should be positive outcomes for gold," he said.

"The supply demand fundamentals in the sector are good for gold," he said.

"I think gold price can easily go through $1,000 and the rand could certainly be at these levels, or maybe even slightly weaker going forward. So in rand terms we could be doing reasonably well in the quarters ahead," he said on the world's fourth-largest gold producer.


Full production for DRDGOLD in S.Africa power crisis - Niel Pretorius, MD, DRDGOLD SA

[miningmx.com] -- DRDGOLD is back at full production after a very difficult period when the power crisis in South Africa was at its height, said Niel Pretorius, CEO of DRDGOLD South Africa.

In January, power utility Eskom said it could not guarantee supply and it caused mines to shut down for a week. Power was subsequently restored to 80% of normal consumption and then up to 90%. Some mines requested, and have been granted, 95%.

"There was a direct impact for the few days that Eskom didn’t supply or they said they couldn’t guarantee a supply and there was no production," Pretorius said on Classic Business, a week-nightly radio programme.

"Then there was the more indirect impact where we had to manage our consumption by way of switching off our ventilations fans for certain periods of time every day and that caused a rise in temperature immediately - you saw a drop in efficiency underground - so February was a gloomy time for us," he said.

"It really wasn’t a particularly happy month for us but then we got the 95% go ahead; 95% of consumption and that’s enough for us – we can produce full steam at 95% of maximum consumption," he said.


Mark Cutifani, CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

» AngloGold raises R12bn to combat hedgebook
» AngloGold revises up March gold output

Forty five percent of AngloGold's hedge book to go -- Mark Cutifani, CEO

In an interview on 702 @ 18:45 on 7 May 2008

[miningmx.com] -- ANGLOGOLD Ashanti's planned R12-billion rights issue will remove about 45% of the company's hedge book during the course of this year.

"It is a substantial reduction. What we have done is we have taken out 10% just in the first quarter but for the full year we will take almost 45% of the hedge book so we are making a big hole in it," said AngloGold CEO in an interview on 702's World at Six.

Cutifani said the $1.6bn which will be raised through the rights issue will be more than enough to buy up 45% of the company's existing hedge.

"We will be able to restructure that back over the subsequent seven or eight years and the discount will take on the spot price today will be around six percent against the 18 to 20% percent that we are seeing at the moment," he added.

The plan is to reduce the hedge in the next six to eight years but AngloGold said if it can speed this up it will.


Safety standard have deteriorated at Gold Fields - Frans Baleni general secretary, NUM

In an interview on ClassicFM @ 18:45 on 29 May 2008

[miningmx.com] -- SOUTH Africa's largest mining union has criticised Gold Fields for its lack of communication with its members at the time of and after fatal accidents last week which killed 14 people at the gold miner's operations.

A rope snapped on a cage and plunged down a shaft killing nine people at Gold Fields' South Deep mine on May 1.

"If you look at this incident of the shaft of South Deep where a rope snapped, it is something that doesn't just happen. You would understand if it was deep underground and a geological reaction but the snapping of a rope is just unacceptable because this equipment is supposed to be maintained and it can only snap if there was weakness in the maintenance," said Baleni in an interview on Classic Business.

"So where we come from – the safety standard has deteriorated in Gold Fields."

Baleni said that in the four months to May 1 last year eight workers had been killed in South Africa's mines. In the same period this year this year 20 workers have been killed in one mining house. He said that this showed "they are slipping in so far as safety is concerned".

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Gold Fields was criticised for what Baleni saw as a lack of communication. He said that in the first instance when four people were killed in one day on the 29 April there was no communication at all to the stakeholders. On 1 May, when nine people were killed again there was no communication to the stakeholders.

Workers were called to report back to work on May 3 after the incident at South Deep and Baleni said they refused because there had been no communication.

In a separate interview on the same show CEO of Gold Fields Nick Holland, reacting to comment that Gold Fields may have sent workers back to work too early, said that the company had complied 100% with the requirements set out by the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME).

"Section 54 was issued on the day of the disaster and we complied in full with the Section 54 as we always do – we treat these things extremely seriously, we do not breach legislation – its part of our usual practice and we believe we comply with the laws," he said.