Charles Carter - Executive Officer, Investor Relations
Management
Welcome to the presentation by the AngloGold Ashanti executive team of our results for the Second Quarter Ended 30th June 2006. The format of the presentation will be as follows; Bobby Godsell, our CEO, will review the company’s financial and operating performance over the period, Venkat, our Financial Director will briefly discuss financial disposition followed by Thero Setiloane, who heads up the marketing wing, briefly review a new all enlisted net core entity and this will be followed by the presentations of two chief operating officers with Neville Nicolau discussing the Africa operations, and Roberto Carvalho Silva covering the international operations. Last but not least, Richard Duffy, who heads up business development and exploration, will review our exploration activities during the quarter. After these presentations, we will take your questions. Before we begin, it is necessary for me to read a declaration regarding forward-looking statements that may be made during this presentation. Certain statements made during this presentation including without limitation those concerning the economic outlook for the gold-mining industry, expectations regarding gold prices, production, cash costs and other operating results, growth prospects and the outlook of AngloGold Ashanti’s operations including the completion and commencement of commercial operations of certain of our exploration and production projects, and our liquidity and capital resources and expenditure contain certain forward-looking statements regarding AngloGold Ashanti’s operations, economic performance, and financial condition. Although AngloGold Ashanti believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, no assurance can be given that such expectations will prove to be incorrect. Accordingly, results could differ materially from those set out in the forward-looking statements as a result of among other factors: changes in economic and market conditions, success of business and operating initiatives, changes in the regulatory environment and other government actions, fluctuations in gold prices and exchange rates, and business and operational risk management. For discussion of such factors, refer to AngloGold Ashanti’s Annual Report on Form 20F for the year ended 31 December 2005, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 17 March 2006. AngloGold Ashanti undertakes no obligation to update publicly or release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after today’s date, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. I will now hand over to Bobby Godsell.