Accra, Nov. 27, GNA -Anglogold Ashanti on Tuesday painted a grim picture of its Obuasi mine, saying it recorded 18.6 per cent below targeted production in its third quarter operations.

The company posted 276,007 ounces of gold production representing 9.6 per cent below its target from year to date.

Briefing the media, stakeholders and chiefs in tits operation area, Mr John Miller, Managing Director for the Obuasi mine told a road show in Accra that Obuasi made a 33 million-dollar free cash flow loss year-to-date despite injecting 67.1 million dollars into operations. He attributed a further loss of 9.4 million dollars loss to the debilitating one year power crisis that hit the country within the period, stressing that: "Obuasi cannot continue to sustain losses year on year and could be forced to shut down if the losses do not stop." The mine also recorded a loss of 8.6 million dollars in terms of free cash flow in the third quarter.

"These threaten the long term future of the mine including the viability of the Obuasi Deeps," he said adding that there is a need to address these at the same time as continuing to improve safety, environmental performance and address sustainable development issues. Mr Miller stated that despite the challenge, the company was working at improving its safety, health and environmental issues within the long-term, saying malaria rates dropped again within the period under review as a result of the company's control programme. The Obuasi Mines suspended its processing operations for 12 days in September to address a range of environmental and maintenance issues, leading to a number of process improvements.

Mr Miller explained that a total of 1.5 million dollars had been spent from from year to date on social investments in the concession area.

Mr David Ryner, Managing Director for Iduapriem Gold Mine said the Mine recorded 12 per cent less production mainly due to the mill gear problems in the first quarter.

On social support, he said the Iduapriem mines would invest about 1.3 million dollars on investments to improve agronomic practices and improve access to credit for various enterprises. Ms Joyce Aryee, Chief Executive Officer for the Ghana Chamber of Mines said emphasis on investments from mining alone was not enough, hence the need for broad based comprehensive programme to develop the sector.

She called on civil society and traditional authorities to work together to help develop the sector.