Cura assists AngloGold Ashanti in creating risk-aware company culture

25 Sep '09

4 min read

With a board level decision made to take on a more rigorous approach to group-wide risk management, AngloGold Ashanti, a global gold producer with 21 operations on four continents and number of exploration programmes in both the established and new gold-producing regions of the world, earlier this year set out to shift its risk management function from one that was centered-on compliance to one that was focused on driving and contributing towards its business strategy.

And with a timeline that gave a little more than six months to the team dedicated to this task, it was clear that it was an ambitious set of goals to work towards.

“We had our minds set on effecting a substantial improvement in AngloGold Ashanti's risk management process, managing down any threats the company faced and harnessing all possible opportunities - in essence creating a risk-aware culture within the company,” says Mark Robins, AngloGold Ashanti's Vice President of Risk Management.

“That meant we had to create a live information risk register, as well as a risk tracking and reporting system that was accessible to 21 operations across four continents, as well as projects, exploration and regional and corporate functions,” he explains.

All of these requirements together translated into the search for an enterprise and operational risk management toolset that was flexible and adaptable enough to meet AngloGold Ashanti's needs around the globe, well-known and highly-respected as a leader in its field in international markets, capable of integrating well with the current IT environment and able to be quickly implemented, so that the company could begin realising a quick return on investment.

Robins says the company took its lead from international analysts, Gartner Research, when it came to selecting a pool of vendors to work with.

“A rigorous internal evaluation exercise then shortlisted this pool down to a handful of vendors – from which Cura was ultimately picked as the best choice,” he says.

Robins says the company stood out amongst its peers in the market when evaluation criteria such as a competitive and accessible support and configuration service, a high-level support throughout the entire design process, pricing and mining expertise, were applied to the mix.

“Cura furthermore also offered us a pilot project at its own cost and risk – a measure that gave us the ability to prove our thinking and the viability of the solution to our senior management team and in doing so, secure their buy-in,” Robins adds.

Besides creating an environment that was more conducive to the project's acceptance, the pilot also paved the way for a speedy implementation.

“It took a mere six months for us to create the reporting AngloGold Ashanti required and configure the system for optimal performance and accuracy,” explains Avi Eyal, CEO of Cura.

“The project was furthermore completed within thecustomer's required timeframe and budget,” he says, “something few of our peers can lay claim to in today's skills challenged environment.

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