Welcome to the 2026 annual general meeting. My name is Jochen Tilk, and I'm the Chair of AngloGold Ashanti. Thank you for joining us today. I have been advised that a quorum is present, and I therefore declare the annual general meeting of AngloGold Ashanti plc open. Welcome to the 2026 annual general meeting. Please be aware that the meeting is being recorded, and the recording will be made available on the company's website. My name is Jochen Tilk, and I am the Chair of AngloGold Ashanti. Thank you for joining us today. I would like to introduce my fellow Board members, our Independent Non-Executive Directors, Alan Ferguson, who is joining us virtually from the United Kingdom, Sergio Garcia, Bruce Cleaver, Albert Garner, Jinhee Magie, Nicky Newton-King, and Diana Sands.
I would also like to welcome Marcus Randolph, who has joined the board since the last AGM and will be standing for election for the first time. Also here today, our executive directors, Alberto Calderon, our CEO, and Gillian Doran, our CFO. I would now like to take the opportunity to share the highlights of what was a remarkable year for AngloGold Ashanti in 2025. Looking back, 2025 was a year of historic operational and financial delivery for our company. We didn't just achieve record free cash flows. We fortified our balance sheet against the global backdrop characterized by macroeconomic dislocation and geopolitical fragility, and we paid a record dividend. While we certainly benefited from the safe haven demand that saw gold prices break records 53 times throughout the year, our success was not merely a by-product of the market.
It was the deliberate result of a multi-year strategic pivot, a transformation that has made this company leaner, more resilient, and laser-focused on value over volume. For the board, environmental, social, and governance principles are not philosophical abstractions. They are the bedrock of our risk management framework. Our social license to operate is, quite simply, non-negotiable. It is worth noting that this year we achieved our lowest ever total recordable injury frequency rate at our managed operations of 0.97 per million hours worked. However, we often say that any safety performance is only ever as good as the last injury-free day, and never was that more apt than now. Last year's performance, no matter how impressive, offers no comfort in the face of human loss. It is with great sadness that I must report on the recent fatality at our Obuasi mine in Ghana barely two weeks ago.
Alberto will touch on it in more detail in one moment, but I want to express to the family and loved ones of Nicholas Owuku the sincere condolences of the board and indeed the entire management team. This tragedy will receive the board's rigorous oversight. We are actively monitoring the investigation currently underway to find the root causes, and we will ensure the necessary steps are taken so that this does not happen again. We recognize that a high gold price brings unintended consequences, specifically by increasing the incentives for illegal mining and artisanal incursions. We were deeply saddened by the security-related incident at Obuasi and the disruptions at Geita around Tanzania's elections. These events serve as a sobering reminder of the need for rigorous, compassionate oversight and ongoing constructive dialogue with our host governments, communities, investors, and all other interested stakeholders.
A resilient business must ensure that all stakeholders participate in its success. To that end, in 2025, we contributed over $1.1 billion in cash taxes and $380 million in royalties to our host governments. For you, our shareholders, our record-adjusted EBITDA of $6.3 billion and free cash flow of $2.9 billion provided a unique opportunity. We declared a total dividend of $1.8 billion for the year, the highest in our history, representing 62% of our free cash flow. We are determined to ensure that the providers of capital who have been patient through cycles in ensuring that we have a sustainable business are appropriately rewarded.
We concluded 2025 with an adjusted net cash position of $879 million, providing us with a balance sheet that allows us to navigate future cycles with total confidence. To ensure we maintain the right expertise to guide the business to the next phase in its evolution, particularly as we develop our significant discoveries in Nevada, we are pleased to welcome Marcus Randolph to the board. His global mining experience is already proving invaluable to our oversight. In closing, we do not presume that the extraordinary gold market tailwinds will automatically persist. Our focus remains steadfast on the factors within our control, fiscal discipline, operational excellence, and long-term value creation. On behalf of the board, I thank our CEO, Alberto Calderon, and his team for their steady hand. I will now hand it over to Alberto to detail our operational achievements and our roadmap for growth.
Thank you, Jochen Tilk, good morning to everyone. I will start by addressing the fatality that took place on April 24th at our Obuasi mine. At this stage, it appears to have been caused by the release of material from one of our underground ore passes. This tragic event claimed the life of a colleague. Nicholas Owuku was 53 years old and worked for a contractor, Mining Tools Ghana. He was a son. He was a husband of Mary. He was a father of Richard, of Charles, of Prince, of Rosemary. I echo Jochen Tilk's word in expressing the profound sorrow that each of us feels and in sending our condolences to his family. I am committed to ensuring that his loved ones receive ongoing support.
We have made marked progress over the past four and half years in improving safety across every AngloGold Ashanti site. We have come a long way from when fatal accidents were a more frequent occurrence. This tragedy provides a painful reminder that we cannot relent in our efforts to improve still further to minimize the probability of these events. To ensure we find the absolute root causes of this tragedy, a comprehensive multidisciplinary investigation team of experts is looking into the incident from every possible angle. We will ensure we take that knowledge and apply the lessons learned so that this does not happen again. My message to our teams in 2025 was simple and remains unchanged as we enter 2026: Stay focused on the basics. We do not manage this company based on the expectation of high gold prices.
We manage it to be a reliable, high-margin vehicle that captures the full upside of the market through operational excellence. In 2025, we did exactly that. For the fifth consecutive year, we met our production guidance and kept our unit costs roughly flat in real terms. That puts us in a somewhat exclusive club. While our industry peers saw costs rise by an average of 24% in real terms since 2021, our disciplined Full Asset Potential program kept our increase to just 4%. We delivered production of 3.1 million ounces, a 16% increase year on year. This performance was supported by a few key pillars. First, the successful integration of Sukari in its first full year under our ownership.
It produced a record 500,000 ounces at our lowest total cash cost of $783 an ounce. In fact, this operation has delivered almost a third of the net Centamin acquisition cost in just the first year of operation. Second, we saw the continued steady ramp-up of Obuasi, which delivered 266,000 ounces as it ramps up towards full production capacity. Finally, we saw strong operational growth at Geita and Cuiabá, where initiatives to improve grade and throughput successfully offset localized disruptions. We're also hitting our stride on our decarbonization roadmap. In 2025, we commissioned the largest off-grid hybrid renewable project in Australia's mining sector at Tropicana. This facility, combined with the stabilization of renewable grid power at Geita, is materially reducing our carbon footprint and improving our energy security.
Looking to the future, Nevada remains the cornerstone of our longer-term strategy to establish a new low-cost major production in the U.S. As the Arthur Gold Project, the epicenter of our district play, we declared a first-time mineral reserve of 4.9 million ounces. Our completed pre-feasibility study supports an initial 9-year mine life with an estimated annual production of 500,000 ounces at an incredibly competitive all-in sustaining cost of $954 an ounce. To further consolidate this district, we completed the acquisitions of Augusta Gold in October, which significantly enhances our development optionality. The long-term sustainability of our business depends on replenishing our mineral inventory. Our exploration team continues to be an industry standout in this regard. In 2025, we added more than 9 million ounces of new mineral reserve, roughly three times the amount we depleted.
This marks our ninth consecutive year of mineral reserve growth before depletion. AngloGold Ashanti is a fundamentally different company today than it was even three years ago. We're more disciplined, more predictable, and more focused on the margin of every ounce we produce. I want to thank our employees for their resilience and you, our shareholders, for your continued trust. We enter 2026 with the strongest balance sheet in our history and a clear executable roadmap for growth. With that, I will hand it back to Jochen Tilk.
Thank you, Alberto. Before we move on to the formal business of the meeting, I would be happy, together with my board colleagues, to address any questions you may have on the business of the meeting. Our Company Secretary, Catherine Stead, will explain how to submit your questions and read out any questions received to the virtual meeting platform. Catherine?
Thank you, Jochen. To submit a question, shareholders may navigate to the Ask a Question section on the screen, type in the question, and hit Submit. Alternatively, shareholders may use the telephone number provided on the screen. We ask that you please keep your questions concise and relevant to the business of this meeting. If we receive a number of questions on a single or related subject, then we may choose to group the questions and provide a single answer. We will address questions received through the telephone line first, and then I will read out any questions received through the virtual meeting platform. We do not have any questions via the telephone line, but we have received a question via the virtual platform.
This has been shared by Zizipho Mabuya from Aeon Investments Management, and they have actually submitted three questions. I will read out all three questions, and then I will hand over to our Chair and CEO. The questions are as follows. We appreciate the disclosure of the gender pay gap differential analysis at middle management level and recognize the effort of AngloGold Ashanti to be in line with best practice. Given the growing expectations from investors and regulators for region-specific pay equity transparency, could the company publish location-based gender pay gap data for all major operating regions? Managing nature and biodiversity, including land use, rehabilitation, and mine closure, are identified as material sustainability matters in the annual report.
While the report references desktop assessments and site-level validation processes, it remains unclear how these efforts are translated into measurable and comparable performance indicators. Could the company provide greater clarity on the quantitative metrics, targets, and methodologies used to assess biodiversity impacts, rehabilitation progress, and closure readiness, and how these metrics are tracked over time to enable year-on-year comparison and accountability? The second question submitted is the following. Given that the acquisition of Centamin increased your absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 baseline, what specific challenges does the Sukari operation present for your 2030 target of a 30% reduction? The final question submitted by the same shareholder is, regarding South African legacy projects, what is the current timeline for the final rehabilitation and closure of remaining tailings facilities, and how are you managing long-term latent environmental liabilities, e.g. acid mine drainage?
I will now hand over to Jochen and Albert.
Thank you so much, Catherine, for reading out the question. First thing I'd like to do is just thank Zifipho for the really relevant and detailed questions. Very much appreciated. I can assure you that all of these subjects are very much part of our discussions that we have at the board. Let me maybe respond in three parts because I think that's a three-pronged question. Alberto's, our CEO, is sitting right next to me, so he'll chip in on a couple of things. We also have the Chair of our Sustainability Committee here, which helps to respond to the question on metrics that we choose.
The first question on the pay gap, on the equity of pay gap, I think I just want to acknowledge your concerns and take that on board. I think it's well observed, and we will contemplate and ensure. This is a really important subject, as I said at the beginning, and something that you rightfully point out. On the second point you make is how are we going to report on biodiversity in the future? Again, I would suggest that we take that on board. The sustainability report which you reference and refer to is an important document to us. Every year, Stewart and his team look at how we can improve that.
I take that as an incredibly valid suggestion, and Stewart Bailey and the chair of the committee will look how we can further improve that. The next question, point you raised is the 30% reduction, particularly in regards to the Centamin acquisition, and how do we honor our Scope 1 and Scope 2. That one I like to turn over to Alberto, because he can speak specifically on the projects that are underway to meet those targets.
Thank you, Jochen. First thing I'd say is we remain committed to the 30% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 by 2030. It's not only that we're committed, it is that the projects to achieve this are all on track and in progress. For example, with Sukari, we already have a very substantial solar energy in place. We are seeking to expand it, but we're also connecting, and probably by next year, to the grid, which will reduce massively the carbon footprint by substituting from diesel. That's a very important project. We have projects, solar in Siguiri. We have projects to connect to the grid to hydro power in Geita that has already been implemented.
The main point I'd like to make here is we have made a commitment, and we will fulfill that commitment by 2030.
Thank you. I mean, the final part on the question regarding the legacy environmental legacies in South Africa and how do we intend to manage that. First, I'd like to point out that those responsibilities, with perhaps one exception that I'll mention in a second, reside with the new owners of our South African portfolio. That'll be their responsibility. On the one that remains with us, we will honor our obligations with respect to the silicosis class action. There are payments that are underway in accordance with a previously agreed mechanism, and that's how we intend to manage and settle that. That's our part of remaining responsibility of South African legacy responsibilities.
Maybe one final point I'd like to make on your question to biodiversity, so that goes back to your second question. Just wanted to note that we are part of the group that signed on with the ICMM, the International Council on Mining and Metals, of a no net loss obligation for all of our sites on biodiversity. That in itself defines a commitment that we are devoted to, in addition to how we intend to publish the metrics that support that. Just wanted to add that. I do think that covers your questions. I hope that those answers and the ones that we take into advisement for further reporting are responses that you are satisfied with. Thank you again for forwarding them to us. They're very much appreciated.
I can confirm there are no further questions from shareholders.
Thank you, Catherine. As there are no further questions, I will now move to the formal business of the meeting. I declare that the poll is now open. If you have already submitted a proxy card or voting instruction from prior to the meeting and don't wish to change the way you voted, you don't need to vote again. The votes you've already cast will be counted in the poll. Catherine, can you please outline the voting procedure?
Thank you, Jochen. Voting on all resolutions today will be conducted by way of a poll in accordance with the company's articles of association. The company has appointed Broadridge Financial Solutions to act as Inspector of Elections. All shareholders or their representative who are eligible to vote would have received a link to the voting platform and a 16-digit control number. Now that the poll has been declared open, please click on the Vote Here button and the proxy ballot will appear. You will notice that the voting platform contains all the resolutions which have been published in the notice of meeting. You may indicate your vote for each resolution by selecting the relevant option, for, against, or abstain.
Please note that a vote to abstain is not a vote in the law and will not be counted in the calculation of the proportion of the votes for or against a resolution. Once you have voted on all the resolutions, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click submit. A message will appear on your screen confirming that your votes have been received. Please be aware that once you click submit, your votes cannot be retracted and revoted. As such, please ensure that you have selected the correct option on a resolution. You can vote at any time during the proceedings until the poll closes 15 minutes after the close of the meeting. I will now hand you back to the chair.
Thank you, Catherine. Resolutions one to 17 that are being put to the meeting today as ordinary resolutions were set out and explained in a notice of meeting made available to you on March 26, 2026. These resolutions are now displayed on the screen, and shareholders are invited to vote on each resolution. The results of the voting will be announced on the company's website and furnished on a Form 6-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as soon as practically following the conclusion of the meeting. That concludes the business of the meeting, and I would like to thank you for joining us today. We look forward to engaging with our shareholders again at our 2027 Annual General Meeting. I now declare the meeting is closed. The poll will remain open for a further 15 minutes