Pit wall collapses at Geita

A slope failure in the southwest wall of the Nyankanga pit of AngloGold Ashanti’s (AU-N, AGD-L, AGG-A, ANG-J) Geita gold mine in Tanzania is unlikely to affect near-term production, the company says.

The failure was predicted by the pit monitoring system, and there were no injuries or damage to any equipment.

Current mining at Geita is concentrated in three other pits, Geita Hill, Lone Cone, and Matandani. Later expansion at Geita — AngloGold proposes to double production this year — may be affected, because high-grade zones in Nyankanga were to be exposed in a push-back of the pit this year.

AngloGold plans to revamp its production schedule to allow more time to expose the Nyankanga mineralization. The push-back will also remove unstable fault zones that were the locus of the wall failure.