Alberto Calderon
CEO: AngloGold Ashanti
‘Tight control of costs and active management of our working capital means the higher gold price has flowed to our bottom line’
THREE years into his tenure Alberto Calderon looks like a winner in his moves to reshape and reposition AngloGold Ashanti. Most significant for shareholders is that the share price has finally started moving upwards, although whether that is due to Calderon’s initiatives or simply the soaring gold price is not entirely clear; we lean towards the former.
The results for the 2024 third quarter were stellar, with a 17-fold rise in free cash flow as the benefits of the higher gold price went straight through to the bottom line. It seems that progress is even being made on the troublesome Obuasi mine in Ghana, with the production results showing the mine is at least holding its own despite the worrying “poor ground” conditions. Calderon says trial use of the new mining method – underhand drift and fill – has been successfully completed and will now be scaled up across the operation to boost production.
On the M&A front, Calderon bid $2.5bn in cash and shares for Egyptian gold miner Centamin, paying a 36.7% premium that will make AngloGold Ashanti the world’s fourth-largest gold miner. He says the deal will be free cash flow accretive in the first year of production. Buying Centamin also opens up possibilities for AngloGold to sell some of its “second-class” operations. On the negative side the proposed merger in Ghana of Iduapriem with Gold Fields’ Tarkwa operation has not gone through because it has been held up by Ghanaian politics.
LIFE OF ALBERTO
Calderon has to be the most academically qualified and operationally experienced executive to ever run AngloGold. He holds a PhD and MPhil and has run operations across the mining spectrum. He was previously CEO of Orica – the largest mining explosives company in the world – and of giant Colombian coal company Cerrejón. He has also held a number of key positions at BHP, including chief executive for aluminium, nickel and corporate development as well as chief commercial officer.
