Safety – our commitment

At AngloGold Ashanti, people are at the centre of the business. In this context, we reaffirm that we cannot accept injuries or impairment to health as a consequence of our work. AngloGold Ashanti is focused on creating the safest possible working environment for employees. This is reflected in our goal to reduce accident rates by 70% over the next five years, from the baseline of average rates over the period from 2006 to 2008, and our long-term objective of achieving an accident-free business.

Our Safety BluePrint

Following the launch in 2008 of “Safety is our first value”, and the initiation of our Safety Transformation project, we have developed a Safety BluePrint for the business. This includes our Guiding Principles, which represent a global approach to developing a resilient safety culture and systems that will create a common business platform and language for safety across the company. For AngloGold Ashanti, the concept of safety includes occupational health and safety, and the wellness of employees, contractors and our host communities. We aim to ensure that no health or safety impact resulting from our operations affects these communities. In some of the regions in which we operate, for example in West Africa, addressing wellness issues such as malaria is an example of our community-based endeavours.

Taking cognisance of local regulatory requirements, unique cultural differences and site specific characteristics, our global approach is designed to achieve four key objectives:

1. establish new and innovative ways to manage safety, support the effective execution of safety strategies, and eliminate inefficiencies
2. establish a common safety management approach that has a structure and language that helps bring the organisation together with a single and consistent safety framework
3. ensure that safety is effectively integrated with other business strategies and objectives, in support of a stable operating platform
4. engage every employee to create conditions that encourage them to give of their best for their own benefit and that of the company.

Supporting this change requires the business, among other measures, to embrace a technology-based knowledge management system that encourages higher levels of collaboration and cooperation across all business units.

Implementing our Safety BluePrint

The Safety Transformation project seeks to move the company from a position of vulnerability to one of resilience. This will require integration of the Safety BluePrint with the broader organisational change initiative – known within the company as ONE – which includes implementation of a new people management system, the System for People, and a major programme for business process improvement.

The Safety BluePrint was initially released in May 2009 and is reviewed every six months to ensure that safety strategies remain aligned with broader business strategies. In implementing the BluePrint, we will regularly review all activities to ensure that:

• activities contribute towards achievement of our stated safety vision
• endeavours have a material impact on the adoption of our safety values and guiding principles
• strategies are effectively implemented
• successes are institutionalised through the implementation of safety management systems.

Safety leadership

At group level, the leadership of the safety discipline is the responsibility of the executive vice president: business sustainability, supported by the corporate office safety team. The Safety, Health and Sustainable Development Committee meets quarterly to review the company’s performance in the area.

Leadership has been the driving force behind gains achieved thus far, with recasting of the leadership role on the basis of our position that “Safety is our first value”. Further gains are anticipated through a systems approach that includes:

• building and ensuring safety competence in all organisational roles
• incorporating safety accountabilities into all organisational roles, as appropriate to the nature and complexity of the work being performed
• incorporating rules for safety decision-making into our business processes, that is dealing with effective hazard identification and management, and enabling the safe execution of work
• incorporating appropriate safety performance metrics, with analysis rules integrated into our business process framework.

Progress and performance in 2009

AngloGold Ashanti subscribes to the OHSAS 18001 standard, and all AngloGold Ashanti’s operations have retained their OHSAS 18001 certification throughout 2009. Although OHSAS 18001 certification is a significant achievement, much work is still required to ensure the effective application of the systems in place, and to enable further maturation of the safety culture.

There is a close correlation between systemic efficacy and maturity and safety performance and various leading and lagging indicators are used to track performance. Information from this analysis is used to develop strategies addressing issues relating to safety performance.

Some of the measures that were taken in 2009 to improve safety performance include the following.

• The establishment of a Southern Africa division tripartite health and safety committee. The purpose of the committee is to bring together management, organised labour and government representatives on matters of safety and health so as to create consistency of standards, to ensure clear roles and responsibilities, and to establish a mechanism for the monitoring and evaluation of compliance. The committee will operate independently of the company’s operational (mine-based) health and safety structures.
• In South Africa, the introduction of the 5Teen audit process – an intervention aimed at improving the safety performance of teams with previously poor safety performance records. The process includes formal communication sessions with identified teams, focusing on the reason for their selection, the process to be followed and the intent of the process and follow-up inspections. The initiative is progressing well and indicators reflect improved safety performance from the participating teams.
• A comprehensive audit of safety performance and engagement for all major contractors engaged in our West African operations. Actions addressing identified problem areas have been developed and are being monitored by senior management within the division.
• A workshop focusing on traffic controls attended by delegates from the operations and government in Brazil. The output of the workshop was a plan, encompassing issues ranging from the development of an underground master transport plan to safety behaviour on main roads, which is to be implemented over the next five years.

Performance against key health and safety indicators

Fatal accidents

We record with sadness that 16 AngloGold Ashanti employees lost their lives following occupational accidents during the year. Thirteen of these deaths occurred at South African mines, one at Obuasi in Ghana, one at the Siguiri in Guinea and one at Navachab in Namibia. The accident at Navachab was the first fatality since the mine was commissioned in 1989. The 11% increase in fatal accident rates is a reminder of the challenges facing the business and the need to increase the intensity of our efforts to improve safety performance.

Occupational injuries

Other lagging safety indicators are showing improvements due to the initiatives that have been implemented, particularly over the past three years. Our lost time injury frequency rate (LITFR) showed an improvement of 10.24%, falling to 6.57 compared with the rate of 7.32 recorded in 2008 and our medical treatment injury frequency rate (MTIFR) showed a 19.3% improvement, from 22.95 in 2008 to 18.53 in 2009.

In South Africa, Section 54 of the Mine Health and Safety Act provides for the mine safety inspectorate to close part or all of a mine should it believe that any particular occurrence or condition may endanger the health and safety of any individual on the mine. In 2009, 44 instructions to close sections of mining operations were received in terms of the Act. Not all of these followed fatal accidents and in some cases the Section 54 notices were issued following routine inspections. In total, 95 full shifts at our various South African operations were lost as a result of the imposition of these instructions (2008: 44). In response to each instruction, an investigation was undertaken and remedial actions proposed and implemented.

Safety performance 2007 - 2009

(per million hours worked)	2009	2008	2007
Fatal injury frequency rate	0.10	0.09	0.21
Lost time injury frequency rate	6.57	7.32	8.24
Medical treatment injury frequency rate	18.53	22.95	27.84

Occupational injuries – 2009

Region	Non-lost time injuries	Lost time injuries	Medical treatment cases
Southern Africa	1,620	941	2,561
Continental Africa	208	81	289
Australasia	13	2	15
North America	13	5	18
South America	53	19	72
Greenfields exploration	35	18	53
Group	1,945	1,066	3,008

Occupational lung disease (OLD)

Silicosis remains the most significant occupational health issue in South Africa. A total of 409 cases of silicosis were submitted for evaluation to the Medical Bureau for Occupational Disease during 2009 compared with 442 during 2008. Although there has been a steady and significant decline in the number of new cases of silicosis reported over the last four years (with 7 cases in every 1,000 in 2007 to 4 in 2008 and 3.5 in 2009), the continuing incidence of silicosis is a major issue of concern for the company. In order to accelerate progress in achieving industry milestones, an interdisciplinary occupational health steering committee has been set up to develop and implement a strategy for combating and eventually eliminating occupational lung diseases. It will also deal with noise induced hearing loss (NIHL), an occupational health issue of major concern in South Africa. The committee operates under the leadership of the executive vice president for business sustainability and reports to the Safety, Health and Sustainable Development Committee of the board.

In addition to complying with the guidelines of the Department of Mineral Resources of South Africa on dust management, we are currently reviewing dust sampling methodologies in order to gain an understanding of how long-term improvements can be effected. Dust allaying methods, such as multi-stage filter installations and water atomising systems are being implemented and footwall treatment is in progress at all operations. All cases of over-exposure are immediately investigated and appropriately managed.

Noise induced hearing loss

NIHL remains a significant challenge at most underground operations in AngloGold Ashanti. The incidence of NIHL in South Africa has decreased from 2.60 cases per 1,000 employees in 2008 to 2.36 cases per 1,000 in 2009. In 2009, 79 cases were compensated compared with 88 cases during 2008. We would have anticipated these figures to fall more quickly in light of intensified hearing conservation programmes aimed at achieving industry milestones. We have embarked on a drive to obtain more reliable data on exposure to noise by increasing sampling frequency. The silencing of all noisy equipment is also in progress.

Tuberculosis (TB)

The TB incidence rate in our South African operations has increased to 29 cases diagnosed per 1,000 employees compared with 26 per 1,000 in 2008. These high levels of TB incidence can be attributed primarily to the effect of silica exposure and HIV prevalence. This reinforces the need for ongoing integration of efforts to address and control HIV/AIDS, TB and silica dust exposure.

Malaria

Malaria remains a significant health concern for AngloGold Ashanti’s operations in Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Tanzania. The prevalence of malaria in these regions results in serious illness and absenteeism among employees, and has a significant impact on employees’ families and communities.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has chosen AngloGold Ashanti as the principal recipient of a grant of up to $133m to accelerate access to the prevention and treatment of malaria by scaling up home-based care and indoor residual spraying. The project will cover 40 districts in Ghana and will be based on the model AngloGold Ashanti has rolled out at Obuasi. It will run for five years and will create approximately 3,800 jobs by the fourth year of the project.

It is our intention in 2010 to continue the process of applying the lessons learnt at Obuasi, where we have seen the best results from our programmes, more systematically across all our operations. At Geita, for example, we have committed $250,000 to support the community in devising and implementing an Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) programme. The first phase, starting in February 2010, will cover two areas of Geita with a population of some 91,000 people.

HIV/AIDS

HIV prevalence in Sub-Saharan Africa is high and the prevalence rate among employees and contractors working at AngloGold Ashanti’s operations in South Africa is estimated to be approximately 30%.

Over the past four years, HIV programmes in South Africa have shown encouraging results, with an increase in enrolments of either new patients or defaulted patients to treatment through wellness programmes, from an average of 69 per month in 2008 to a sustained level of over 140 new patients per month during the second, third and fourth quarters of 2009. AngloGold Ashanti continues to provide company-funded wellness clinics and anti-retroviral therapy (ART) programmes. These programmes have resulted in year-on-year improvements in health care outcomes for employees within the region. There is a need for continued focus on early referral of HIV positive employees to the wellness clinics, together with strict and regular clinic attendance and ART adherence thereafter. In 2010 HIV programmes of prevention, treatment and support will continue to be a focus area.

During 2009 (assuming single annual testing), 30,002 employees, constituting 87% of the South African workforce, were tested. Much of the success of the VCT programmes can be attributed to leadership and the commitment of both senior management and organised labour at operations, as well as the continued involvement and work of peer educators and counsellors.

The enrolment of new patients, together with the re-enrolment of defaulting patients, brings the total number of AngloGold Ashanti employees who have attended wellness clinics over the year to 4,325. It is important to note that not all employees who are registered at the wellness clinics attend regularly and that non-attendance at the clinic, or drop-outs from the clinics is a continuing concern. Of those attending wellness clinics, 2,216 employees were receiving ART by year end.