David McKay reports that Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan (Venkat), CEO of AngloGold Ashanti, has added his voice to criticism that the South African government is wrongly applying safety-related audits and checks.  

He indicated that the group’s attempt to lift gold production 10% from the region this financial year was “at risk” as a result of stoppages, which were also making it increasingly difficult to forecast output of the metal.  The government is able to shut down a mine, or part of a mine, while it conducts investigations in the event of a mine accident by applying provisions of the Mine Health and Safety Act.  However, Venkat said that of the 77 notices applied at its SA mines in the first seven months of the year, only six related to fatalities.  The rest flowed from procedural “mass audits”, the scale and intensity of which had significantly increased.  The problem was that entire mines were being shut instead of specific sections.  

• Read this report in full at Miningmx

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