AngloGold Ashanti AU-N has no plans to make acquisitions or to be bought, preferring to focus on internal growth, CEO Alberto Calderon said on Wednesday, after Newmont’s $16.9-billion Newcrest bid reignited talk of deals in the gold sector.

“The greatest value we can create is internal,” Calderon said. “Adding value with M&A and being able to justify a premium is very difficult – I’m not saying impossible, but it is difficult.”

Asked if AngloGold could be acquired, Calderon said he could not predict that. “We will stick to what we are doing,” he said.

AngloGold shares were down 5 per cent by 0910 GMT, their lowest level since early December after the miner said 2023 output would likely fall as a plant in Brazil shuts down while improvements are made to a tailings dam.

Tailings dams store the huge volumes of toxic sludge produced when separating minerals from waste rock.

In common with other miners, AngloGold has been improving tailings dams after breaches in recent years killed hundreds of people in Brazil and elsewhere, prompting the development of a new international standard on dam safety.

Johannesburg-based AngloGold said 2023 production excluding the Cuiaba mine – where the processing plant is being suspended – is expected at 2.45 million ounces to 2.6 million ounces of gold.

The miner has temporarily stopped adding tailings to the dam at Cuiaba, as it plans to increase buttressing to bring it into line with a Canadian safety standard. The dam is safe, stable, and compliant with Brazilian regulations, AngloGold said.

“Tailings dams are something that we all agree cannot fail, period,” Calderon said.

AngloGold expects Cuiaba to produce 180,000 ounces of gold this year, down 25 per cent from 2022.

Calderon said he could not yet give a timeline for the engineering work on the dam, which is expected to cost $1.4-billion.

AngloGold’s headline earnings per share for 2022 fell by 12 per cent to 129 U.S. cents, in the middle of a guidance range the company gave last week.

AngloGold produced 2.742 million ounces in 2022, an 11 per cent improvement on the previous year, and it managed to keep costs under control despite surging inflation.

The company’s all-in sustaining costs – a measure of the overall cost of mining – increased by 2 per cent year over year, while total cash costs per ounce increased by 6 per cent.