AngloGold has a strong view on the future of the gold price - Mark Cutifani, CEO

In an interview on SAfm @ 18:25 on 28 January 2009

[miningmx.com] -- ANGLOGOLD ASHANTI is bullish on the gold price and it is positioning the company to take advantage of that, said CEO Mark Cutifani.

"We have a strong view on the gold price going forward, and last year we had a view that gold would trade north of $800/oz on fundamentals, and so we decided to get rid of the hedge book," Cutifani said on SAfm Market Update. "I'd have to say at this stage that decision looks like it's what we've indicated, and so instead of a 20% discount to the prevailing spot price of the day, we are now down to 6% coming the end of this quarter," he said. "And, given our cash cost position, and the very modest discount, we are the most competitive gold business in South Africa, and one of the most competitive in the world," he added. AngloGold said on Wednesday it had sold its one-third stake in Australia's Boddington mine to its joint venture partner Newmont for $1.1bn and the sale means the $200m it had earmarked towards the completion of the development project has now been freed up. "Wat this does now is really position us to again continue to improve returns and look more opportunistically both in terms of our brownfields development opportunities and also other opportunities in the marketplace where some of these smaller companies are struggling," Cutifani said.