AngloGold Ashanti Limited
Q4 2012 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 20 Feb 2013

[Operator:]

Good day, and welcome to the AngloGold Ashanti Fourth Quarter and Year End 2012 Conference. [Operator Instructions] Please also note that this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Stewart Bailey. Please go ahead, sir.

[Stewart Bailey:]

Thanks, Dylan, and apologies for the short delay here. We just had a slight technical hitch here in Johannesburg. But welcome to the fourth quarter and full year 2012 results presentation. As is customary, we've got Mark Cutifani who will make some introductory comments; Venkat will talk us through the financials; and then Mark is going to offer some concluding comments and as well as the outlook numbers as well. As we normally do, I'm going to quickly whiz through the disclaimers, Safe Harbor statement, and then we'll get right into it. Certain statements made in this communication, other than statements of historical fact, including, without limitation, those concerning economic outlook for the -- of the gold mining industry, expectations regarding gold prices, production, cash costs and other operating results, growth prospects and outlook of AngloGold Ashanti's operations, individually or in the aggregate, including the achievements of project milestones, completion and commencement of commercial operations of certain of AngloGold Ashanti's exploration and production projects, and completion of acquisitions and dispositions, AngloGold Ashanti's liquidity and capital resources and capital expenditure and the outcome and consequence of any potential and pending litigation or regulatory proceedings or environmental issues are forward-looking statements regarding AngloGold Ashanti's operations, economic performance and financial condition. These forward-looking statements and forecasts involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause AngloGold Ashanti's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements or forecasts. Although AngloGold Ashanti believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements or forecasts are reasonable, no assurance can be given that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Accordingly, results could differ materially from those set out in forward-looking statements as a result of, among other factors, changes in the economic, social, political and market conditions; success in business and operating initiatives; changes in regulatory environment and other government actions, including environmental approvals; fluctuations in gold price and exchange rates, and business and operational risk management. For a discussion of certain of these and other factors, refer to our annual report for the year ended 31st December 2011, distributed to shareholders on April 4, 2012, our 2011 annual report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC in the U.S. on 23rd of April, and the prospectus supplement to the company's prospectus dated July 17 that was filed with the SEC on July 25. These factors are not necessarily all of the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements. Other unknown and unpredictable factors could also have material adverse effect on future results. Consequently, stakeholders are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. AngloGold Ashanti undertakes no obligation to update publicly or release any revision to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after today's date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events except to the extent required by applicable law. All subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to AngloGold Ashanti or any person acting on its behalf are qualified by the cautionary statements herein. This communication may contain non-GAAP financial measures. We utilize these non-GAAP financial measures and ratios in managing our business. Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to, and not as an alternative for, the reported operating results or cash flow from operations or any other measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. In addition, the presentation of these measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures other companies use. We post our information important to investors on the main page of the website at anglogoldashanti.com and under the Investors tab on the main page. They -- it's updated regularly. Please visit the website to obtain important information Over to you, Mark.

[Mark Cutifani:]

Thanks very much, Stewart. Again, sorry about the delay guys, we had to shift rooms due to a technical glitch. I just want to start off obviously in talking to the fact that [indiscernible] mostly making a move. We do have a global switch process underway led by the board, and that process has started and the board will update the market at the next quarterly results in terms of where we are and how quickly they believe the process will be completed. In the meantime, Venkat and Tony O'Neill are in the joint CEO chair, sharing responsibilities

[Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan:]

Thank you very much, Mark. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to cover the following 4 areas in today's presentation

[Mark Cutifani:]

Thanks, Venkat. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm just going to do a few -- just talk very briefly to some projects and how we're going on integrating some of the recent acquisitions. As I said earlier, we've made 5 significant acquisitions, and for us, significant is something that is all relative compared to what some people have paid, one would argue that, they're significant or insignificant, but I would argue that in terms of value creation, they are being very significant compared to relative valuations. So in looking at our first -- our most recent one, the Mine Waste Solutions acquisition, you'll see on Page 28, there are a couple of charts there. The top chart shows you production performance since we took over the asset. And in that case, we are running -- you can see, we're running about 1,200 tonnes a day. Since we took over, we've improved that operation by 20% with the application of our operating models. So we've made a significant improvement in the production. At the same time, when you look at the bottom chart, what we want is the dots to be low because that actually reflects cyanide consumption. And you'll see that we've made, based on where we were, around a 25% reduction in cyanide and other reagent consumptions. So we've seen a 20% production kick-up and a 15% unit costs reduction in the very short time that we've been managing the asset. So the team's done a great job, Mike O'Hare and the crew have done a great job. And we expect the asset to require some capital and some moneys in the first 2 years. Well the great news is we're cash positive already based on that improving performance. And whilst the asset will take some cleaning up on the environmental side, it looks like we're going to be able to fund those additional requirements from internal capital and be posting a relatively modest return in the first 18 months. But once that's done, the returns will be very strong, and quite frankly, we see the value more than twice what we paid and that number is continuing to increase. So I'm very happy with how that's going. At Serra Grande, another good acquisition. We had a hunch on the geology, and the drilling we've done so far continues to give us confidence that we've got it right. We have added, I think, about around 880,000 ounces to inferred resources this year. It's still too early to call it is a success, but certainly, everything we've seen so far is very encouraging. We've got the operation about 140,000 ounces. Total cash costs of around $705 an ounce, and the team is working on the next level of improvement but already the Project ONE 1 step that we've done over the last couple of years has yielded real benefits. So I'm very pleased with what we're looking up here, and again, we think we're going to end up in the right side of the ledger in terms of the value equation for that asset. To take a broader view, we've not been silly. We've not been out there spending like drunken sailors in terms of acquisitions. You'll see that we've sold 3 assets. We've generated about $1.2 billion cash flow. And in the case of Boddington, when we look at the money we would have had to have spend finishing the project of that number on a net basis. It's actually even lower than $1.2 billion. And we put back $1 billion in terms of adding to the portfolio, and net-net, we think we've added $3 billion to $4 billion worth of value for what is effectively a nil [ph] some gain in terms of cash inflows and outflows in terms of assets bought and sold and we've created $4 billion worth of value. And if you remember that the NPV or the net present value or net asset value in rough terms was about $7 billion when we started this work at the end of 2007. That's not a bad balance book, balance sheet in terms of our acquisition and major transactions. And if I then add the $4.5 billion created from the take out of the hedge book, we certainly have the money and the key decisions we've made across the portfolio, so very pleased with where that's going. In terms of current projects, Tropicana very pleased to report on track. In fact, we're probably tracking a couple of months ahead of schedule. We're still forecasting a start of Q4 commissioning. We could do a little bit better than that, but we'll stick with that for the moment and have a look at the next quarter. The forecasts are actually just inside the board contingent allowing figures that we provided in the budget. The key issue there has been labor productivity has been a little disappointing across the West Australian scene, although we are seeing a pickup with projects being canceled in Australia, we're seeing better quality trades coming to the projects, so that's helping us. So I'm very pleased where that is. I'm very excited and we've continue to build our resource base which gives us more upside in terms of our operating models. Remember, that sort of project was going to deliver returns in the range of 24%, 25%, so very excited. I'm happy with the way that's going. Kibali is not one we're managing ourselves. That's being managed by friends at Randgold. We think they're doing a job via forecasting gold by the end of the year. We're still expecting probably more likely to see gold in the first quarter, but at the same time, we still think it's possible. We're doing everything we can to support Mark and his team deliver on their objectives, very happy that we're tracking inside our cost numbers. And again, we're happy that we actually provided some contingency on whether those sorts of things and union activities and infrastructure, but certainly, we believe we're tracking inside our provisions, which is encouraging. And again, I'd like to commend Mark and his team for doing a very good job. And I think that joint venture for all its trials and tribulations is actually working very well and we're certainly expecting to see good outcome. At CC&V, 100%, again, AngloGold Ashanti, we're tracking ahead of schedule and under budget, so we're happy with the way that's going, although it's a little too early to say that's a solid trend, certainly, the early signs are good. The Americas team has a very good track record on delivering projects, so I'm very confident that we'll be putting gold through our plant in 2014. In terms of outlooks, we have been prudent in forecasting both quarterly and annual guidance. You'll see full year guidance, 4.1 million to 4.4 million ounces. There are some commentary points there around Geita mill replacement which is underway as we speak, making sure that we continue on the Obuasi recovery work. And obviously, the work in replacing the contractor has been important, and that has been a bit slow, but certainly, the key changes have been made. We've not had any major pushback from the political side, so we're very happy with the way that's going in general. Now the challenge will be to get up that curve as quickly as we can. In terms of -- and continuing on the outlook. You'll see from capital, the original ask was actually around $2.55 billion. We've trimmed that back to $2.1 billion. We want cut -- make sure that we only spend within our means. Corporate costs, we've trimmed $50 million, and I think there's more to be done but the guys have done a very good job in attacking those costs and we'll keep working on those. And there's a lot of that capacity building working there that we're starting to roll off. Expansion, exploration and studies, there's about $200 million of that $377 million dedicated to Gramalote and Colombia, that is a big number. But even with that, we've almost trimmed them $100 million out of those provisions. So we're pushing projects back, getting the timing right, making sure that what we do is affordable. Depreciation and amortization is starting to reflect some of the new stuff coming on stream and the new acquisitions that we've announced. Interest and financing costs, reflecting the higher net debt from the new projects, we'll turn that back around as we start to pull the lines back as we generate cash flow from the projects. And the other project that we haven't mentioned in there is our implementation of SAP or our ERP project. We went live with our first site in South Africa this month, on schedule and under budget. And so far, it looks like it's gone very well, and that's been a global -- that's a global implementation project. And as the people at SAP say to us we're probably being the best prepared mining company they've seen given the work we did with Project ONE and the BPF. I said we already had our business processes well set out, and so they said that from their point of view it's not a surprise that we're one of the only groups that have come in so well in terms of timing and costs. Still a fair way to go and still a lot of water to flow under the bridge on that one but certainly very encouraging from what we've seen so far. Now finally, my last 2 overheads, I'll make a very simple observation. I'm on Page 36 in terms of the presentation. If you look at that chart, the 2 top lines in that chart show the gold price starting from 2008 and our earnings performance or our EBITDA performance. We track EBITDA because that's a lead indicator on cash flow once our projects are completed. And you'll see that we've improved EBITDA, we've almost peaked at about 300% of where we were. Obviously, 2012 is impacted by the strikes. We'd expect that to start picking back up, with a little bit of help from the gold price in 2013, 2014, particularly, with the additional volumes from the new projects, so we'd outperform the gold price over that period. Frustratingly, we've performed in the first 2.5, 3 years ahead of the gold price, but once we saw a flow of bad news from South Africa, we have performed a bit behind actually our peers. Obviously, we're working hard in South Africa to manage expectations and make sure that we stem that flow of bad news, and that's important to us. The other thing is we are taking the issue of the gold price very seriously. We're looking at all of our options including assets, splits and other things we believe we can do to make sure people can see that value. All options remain on the table. I did make a comment this morning that we are watching the Goldfields experience very closely. We've actually outperformed Goldfield since they did their split, but there's not much in it, so one wouldn't take pleasure or credit that we're doing any better. I think we're all performing around the same. So for us, there's not an obvious value uplift but we'll watch it and consider how it performs over the next 3 months. The board, the executive are looking at all options. And as I said earlier this morning, all options remain on the table. Now irrespective of the structural issues, we are prepared to consider -- the first thing is to make sure the business is operating to its optimum. And in terms of this last slide, there you'll see that we're continuing to drive the 3 main projects, make sure we get those commissioned, get the production, and in particular, get the cash flows running to demonstrate that we've made the right calls. We've actually gone into our operating and corporate costs both in terms of the overheads and our operating costs. We are looking to strip $100 an ounce out of our operating costs over the next 18 months, that's the focus of the team. And based on the good performance and the 20% real cost reduction we've delivered in the last 4 years, we believe that's possible working from the Project ONE improvements we've delivered and the foundations we've delivered. We're working hard in South Africa and making sure that we're focusing on cash flow and financial returns as opposed production-for-production site. We're simplifying the portfolio. We have already commenced the sale process on Navachab. And we want to see Colombia come forward and literally brought the book in terms of share value. And for us, and for the good work Charles Carter has done in leading that team. We've seen a significant improvement in the community side. Gramalote is starting to fast-track. We'd expect it to flip into feasibility study by midyear, and certainly from then, people will be able to start and put numbers to Colombia, which we think will make a real impact in terms of share price and the people's perceptions of value. So with that, I'm happy to take questions.

[Operator:]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Tanya Jakusconek of Scotiabank.

[Tanya M. Jakusconek:]

And just a few questions that I have, either yourself or maybe Venkat can answer some of these. Just on some of the targets that were provided on production and capital, could you give us a bit more in terms of the breakdown per region for 2013? So that's my first part of my question. And then the second part would be, just the tax rate. And then just a comment on the dividend, where you see that going?

[Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan:]

If I can pick it up, Tanya, in terms of the total production guidance of between 4.1 and 4.4, we're looking at South Africa at around roughly 1.4 million ounces. Continental Africa, again, roughly a similar sort of number; Australia, around the 400 mark, and America is around 1 million mark. That's really the split in terms of the regional production between those 4 regions. Then your second question was around -- if you remind me again, after production was around...

[Tanya M. Jakusconek:]

Yes. Just on the CapEx, 2.1 billion, maybe you can give us some of the key items in there.

[Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan:]

Yes. If I can give you the breakdown at the high level on CapEx of $2.1 billion, $1.1 billion is project capital and the rest of it is basically between sustaining capital asset integrity, deferred stripping, which is capitalized at around $118 million, and the other normal staying business, CapEx, et cetera. If the balance -- if you look at the project capital, the bulk of the amount is actually in the DRC and Tropicana around roughly $400 million is in respect to Congo and around $250 million is in respect of Tropicana. Americas has around roughly $260 million and the balance of around $199 million is in respect of South Africa. With term of effective tax rate, which is your final question, there is -- we are not anticipating any material change in the tax rates. The only thing you've got to bear in mind is this particular year, 2012, the year just gone, benefited from some certain tax credits both from a legislation point of view and also in terms of some of the tax planning we have done. So I would basically say, in 2013, around 35% could be a good factor, but bear in mind, South Africa doesn't follow a linear tax rate, it follows the gold tax curve, so you will see some swings and roundabouts there. But around about 35%-ish, you are not going to be too far out.

[Tanya M. Jakusconek:]

And sorry, I had a question on the dividend. I know it was cut with the -- in Q3, the announcement was made. Just maybe how you see the dividend going forward given your cash flow. And then I had a last question. I think the guidance or the view last year had been that by 2015, we would be towards the 5.4 to 5.6 million ounce range in production, and I just wonder how you see 2015 going out?

[Mark Cutifani:]

Tanya, it's Mark here. On dividends, Tanya, what we've said is we want to continue to pay dividends. We have -- I would expect that you'll see the dividends held in the accounted range, although obviously, the board will opine again on that against the progress on the projects, but everything looks good so far. If you get a bid of a run on the gold price, then I believe that the team will look favorably on, obviously, throwing a bit more the shareholders' way, but the focus is on delivering dividends. Once we get through these projects, the idea will be to kick the dividends up. Because we believe that with the quality of the portfolio as we get these projects bidded in, then yield becomes a very important conversation here. That's why we're going the way we're going in terms of the projects, so steady as she goes. If we get a bit of a run on the gold price, we'll kick it up. We certainly wouldn't pull the dividends too quickly with a bit of weakening because, don't forget, we're on the bottom half of the total cost curve in the industries. So we're one of the best protected, but we are spending money on some new projects at the moment, so we've got to be -- we've got to steer carefully. And...

[Tanya M. Jakusconek:]

But would it be safe to say -- sorry, Mark, that once Kibali comes in and once Tropicana comes in and the capital there is behind you, then you'd be at a better place to increase the dividend?

[Mark Cutifani:]

Absolutely, Tanya. We're at about a 1.3% yield off a very low share price. So we'd be looking to improve both absolute and yield terms once those 2 projects are in. So we understand the sensitivity and the desire [indiscernible] will be better on that front. On the 5.5, Tanya, I think you've got to -- there has been a few moving parts. Don't forget we've not committed to Mali on the basis of the political changes and our desire as a company not to jump in with both feet given the changing circumstance in Mali. So there's 200 pushback there. Mongbwalu, we've slowed right up, again, because of the gold price weakening, and obviously, the strikes in South Africa caused us to react very quickly so we pushed that back and we actually believe that's prudent to do that, so there is about 130,000 to 150,000 ounces there. And in terms of South Africa, what we said very publicly, against the original production targets, we are more focused on EBITDA or financial returns, and the need to make sure we're making real production. So a 1.4 target this year, declines on an annual basis around 100,000 ounces in the next couple of years, so you can pull that back somewhere between 300 and 500, so those -- they're the main adjustments that we see to the 2015 numbers. So it's a little bit early to give you a new number, but they are the things that we've been very clear on in terms of what's adjusted. What we are focused on is protecting the balance sheet, making sure our returns are solid, that our financial delivery is solid, that we're throwing money back to the shareholders. And so the key number is not, for us, the production number, it's actually trying to get that EBITDA base from $3 billion to $4 billion is a more important focus for us than the absolute production number. But just to answer your question, that's where the key movements have been.

[Tanya M. Jakusconek:]

And just, Mark, just some the South African perspective, so going down to about 1 million ounces, you would say, in about 2 15, 2 16, will that be fair?

[Mark Cutifani:]

We are looking at about 1.2, Tanya. The one thing that we think might help us that is turning out to be -- when we took the Board on the ground to have a look at the new horizontal raise drilling, and so if we put that stuff into remnants where we've got very high-grade gold that we would not have otherwise recovered. We think that gives us some potential but we're not forecasting it. We will have an operating unit by the end of the year, but it's turning out to be very interesting. And so I think that's one you should track because if that's successful, it will be our most successful exploration project because we're chasing 100 million ounces. And if we can get that working, and I don't think there's any reason why it shouldn't work, then there's a whole range of remnant pillars we can access that changes the game in South Africa quite significantly.

[Operator:]

Our next question comes from Patrick Chidley of the HSBC.

[Patrick T. Chidley:]

Mark, I just -- going back to your comments about watching carefully what's going on with Goldfields and Sibanye and the obvious implications for AngloGold. Do you think that AngloGold maybe has a better case to split than Goldfields? And in many ways, you've got significant international business and maybe it would be a possibility to have a cleaner split there that would maybe excite investors in looking at the relative valuation of your company versus North American companies, it would seem to be an obvious thing to pursue.

[Mark Cutifani:]

Patrick, I'm going to be very careful the way I answer this because I'm an outgoing CEO opining on what the Board and the executives might consider as appropriate strategies going forward. But I will make a comment that's consistent with what I've been saying, so it's no different than what I've said. In looking at the Goldfields, they are 2 -- they've still got South African businesses in both parts of the portfolio. If we were to consider this as a good option, we would, I would think, look at a much cleaner split of the businesses to try and derive value from that type of split. So I do differentiate, and I made that comment some months ago, because we couldn't see where the value lift would come apart from the different character of the assets. They have, obviously, one that needs a fair bit of restructuring and the other was South Deep in their -- gives them some resources and reserves to work with. So we would probably think differently about that type of split in our context because we've got a much bigger, and quite frankly, competitive portfolio. I mean, if you look at our Americas business against Humana, holy moley, I know which one I'd like to own. And having the time right in [indiscernible] at about 11 billion. So I've been very clear on that. If you look at our -- we'll be up near 1 million ounces. And we've got Colombia, it's a great asset, that in its own right should be trading north of 11 billion in my view. So we're being aware of those possibilities could go. But to be fair to the Board, there's a range of options the team is looking at, including the existing strategy and getting better traction on elements within that. Irrespective of what we do, we're going to try and improve the business. We're going to continue to improve the business. If somebody said to me 5 years ago, you're going to triple earnings and see the share price go backwards, I would have said, you got to be kidding. So we've got to do something different to get at that share price. And the one thing I want shareholders to know, if they take John Paulson's observations extremely seriously as we take all shareholders observations seriously. And we are weighing all of those up and we are weighing our own views. We won't jump into something that's half baked. And as I've said as a Chief Executive for 5.5 years, I've had many shareholders give us feedback that would, in my view, damage the company. We won't do that. But at the same time, we listen carefully. And we see merit in some things that have been put to us that we're working through. The Board will make the right call with the team and we will look at how we unlock that value. And one thing is for sure, it's not business as usual, we have to do something different. The key is, what's the right thing to do, because once you've done it, you can't undo it. And the one thing we've done as a team is when we've moved, we've moved deliberately with effectiveness and we've delivered, and that won't change.

[Patrick T. Chidley:]

Great. Just one little follow-up then on the technology, the horizontal raise board drilling technology. When -- if you got an operating unit by the end of the year, how soon do you think you'd be able to sort of say, well, this is the economics of this process and we've got it down pat 5 years away or?

[Mark Cutifani:]

No, no, I think much shorter than that, Patrick. What we saw -- I think when we started this, like all things, we started with a clean sheet of paper 2 years ago, today, what I saw I think we've got something that's going to work. If for nothing else, for taking the remnants, we've got remnant there 4 and 5 ounces to the ton. And so even though it might have a high unit costs, the fact we can go in there, extract the gold, put back fill in there at the same strength of the extracted rock tells me that we can go back to all of those old pillars and start extracting this without increasing any operating risks whatsoever. So we'll have an operating unit by the end of the year, might have a schedule to introduce operating units over the next 3 years such that the technology will make a material contribution. Now, you can't book that, they still have to go through the work. But I think by the end of the year, the team will be able to tell you what to expect from this strategy, whether it will work and how quickly they will be able to start delivering production by the end of the year.

[Operator:]

Our final question comes from Diana Kinch of Dow Jones.

[Diana Kinch:]

I'd like to ask if AngloGold foresees any further strike problems or union disputes at AngloGold installations in South Africa this year. And how can the industry-wide accord you mentioned [Technical difficulty]

[Operator:]

My apologies, I'm going to reconnect Diana now if you'll just give me 2 seconds.

[Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan:]

I think, Dylan, I think we got the gist of the question, it's really just an outlook on what the labor situation looks like in South Africa, and I think we'll go ahead with that.

[Mark Cutifani:]

To answer Diana's question, I think there is no doubt that as a country, everybody's sensitive as they should be to what happened in the strikes, and in particular, Americano. The fact that the Minister reacted within 24 hours at the most recent platinum dispute was important. Wearing my President of the Chamber hat, I was part of those conversations with the National Union of Mineworkers and MCU [ph]. I was there with colleagues from the industry, including representatives from Anglo Platts where we walked through the protocols we believe that should be observed. And there's a verification process when new unions are involved in the strike, but they are protected by the Constitution, they're protected by industrial law and they are protected by the regulations in the mining industry. That would stress people understood the need to respect those conventions and those laws. And certainly, I think the dollar was a very positive one, and we agreed to a set of protocols in principle. Those protocols are being designed in detail today with the leadership of the 3 unions. And I believe it's the right step and I believe the government's response has been appropriate. Now as we go forward in the next 3 or 4 months, I think things will remain tender, but the fact is that the government is now in the game as we are in a very different way in the chamber to see if we can make sure that when we get to the negotiations, then all the issues that have the potential to be inflammatory have been dealt with in a constructive way. And I'll tell you now, no one, and I mean no one, not even new unions want to see last year repeated. Because at the end of the day, if it is, I believe it threatens their existence along with all of their existence if those things happen again. So I think we're in the right conversations. It doesn't guarantee a better result but it certainly makes sure that everybody's in the game and has got skin in the game literally looking to make sure it's the right result. So I think we've got a better chance of being successful. But I wouldn't be as bold to predict that we're not going to have a bit of activity at that time. But everybody's bruised, everybody lost a lot of money, including the miners that were on strike, so I think we're on the right conversations, and hopefully, it will turn out to be a good outcome.

[Diana Kinch:]

But could you say, what are these protocols? I mean they're on safety, they're on union rights, what exactly are the protocols that you are discussing?

[Mark Cutifani:]

It's on safety. It's on the recognition of the rights enshrined in the constitution and that is the right of association. And so simply put, both unions recognize the right of the other union to exist, and that each has an obligation to make sure their members are aware because they have a personal obligation to make sure members of the union behave in an appropriate way. And so for the country, it's important, it's a peace accord between the 2 unions, essentially with everyone else party to that accord with the responsibility to make sure we're doing everything we can to make sure there is no violence and that we go forward in a constructive way.

[Diana Kinch:]

And when can it be expected to be completed, this agreement?

[Mark Cutifani:]

I'd say. I'm talking this week. We're talking this week. And by the way, South Africa has a history with peace accords. And these sort of things, in moments of crisis, unlike any other country in the world, and I'm relying on that commitment when Nelson Mandela's name was invoked yesterday and the constitution and what this country has fought for over 18 years, there was a few tears in the eyes of everybody in that room, people are committed to make sure we don't go the low road.

[Operator:]

Gentlemen, we have no further questions. Do you have any closing comments?

[Mark Cutifani:]

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to say thank you for your participation today, and thank you for the support that you've given all of us at AngloGold Ashanti. As you know, leaders come and go. For me, it's been a privilege to be with the team. We have a great team here. They will take it forward and continue to build on the foundations. I'd like to thank all of the AngloGold Ashanti people for the great support, from the Board, in particular. And I'm excited. I've got shares in AngloGold Ashanti, and I'm going to keep my shares because the gold where it is, with the great results these guys are going to deliver, I think will be a good investment for the long term. Thank you.

[Operator:]

Thank you very much, sir. On behalf of AngloGold Ashanti, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.