Alberto Calderon
CEO: AngloGold Ashanti
‘The move of our primary listing to the NYSE provides us with improved access to the world’s largest capital market’
LAST year was one of dramatic change for AngloGold Ashanti on Calderon’s watch as the company shifted its primary listing from Johannesburg to the New York Stock Exchange; its headquarters to Denver, Colorado; and its domicile to the UK. AngloGold still retains a corporate office in Johannesburg. Those developments are all logical – given that AngloGold sold off its last South African mine in 2020 – and they are all key to Calderon’s aim to restore AngloGold to the ranks of elite international gold miners. But material results have yet to be seen in the share price.
There has been no swift removal of the so-called South African discount. The stock is marginally up on the NYSE since it started trading at the end of September on the main board after the ADR listing was closed. On the operations side of life, things went well for AngloGold with strong performances pretty much across the board bar one – the Obuasi mine in Ghana. That is worrying because Obuasi has caused huge problems for AngloGold in the past. It was closed for five years and reopened in 2019 after extensive re-engineering, but production was suspended temporarily again in May 2021 after further underground problems.
The latest hitch was a production drop in the third quarter last year because of “poor ground conditions in high-grade zones”. The mining method in those zones is now going to be changed. Calderon rates Obuasi highly. Let’s hope he does not end up eating his words on Obuasi like former AngloGold CEO Bobby Godsell once did.
LIFE OF ALBERTO
He is extremely qualified both academically and in terms of work experience. He holds a PhD and MPhil and has worked in leadership roles across the mining, petroleum and energy sectors. He was CEO of Orica, the largest mining explosives company in the world, and an executive with BHP during which time he held the positions of chief executive – aluminium, nickel and corporate development, as well as group executive and chief commercial officer. He has also been CEO of the huge Cerrejón coal company in Colombia. Just to round it off, Calderon has also held senior leadership positions in the International Monetary Fund and the Colombian government.
