May 12 (Reuters) – Miner AngloGold Ashanti ANGJ.J will move its primary listing to New York from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), it said on Friday.

AngloGold, which completed the sale of its South African assets in 2020, said it would also move its corporate base to the United Kingdom.

“The changes announced today will complement the work already underway to reduce our cost of capital, enhance our cost competitiveness versus our peers and optimise our portfolio by providing improved access to the world’s largest capital markets and pool of gold investors,” CEO Alberto Calderon said in a statement.

The plan to move AngloGold’s primary listing will be put to a shareholders vote and requires at least 75% support from investors, Calderon said on a conference call.

The gold miner has shifted its focus to more lucrative mines in Ghana, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as Australia and Latin America as mining in South Africa becomes more difficult and costly due to geological challenges posed by mining some of the world’s deepest gold deposits.

South Africa is also struggling with severe power cuts that are souring investors’ sentiment in Africa’s most industrialised economy.

On Friday, AngloGold said it had produced 584,000 ounces of gold in the first quarter of 2023, marginally lower than 588,000 ounces a year earlier.

The company maintained its production guidance for 2023 at between 2.45 million and 2.61 million ounces. Its all-in sustaining cost guidance for the year also remains $1.450 per ounce.

In March, AngloGold said it had agreed to merge its Iduapriem mine in Ghana with Gold Fields’GFIJ.Jneighbouring Tarkwa operation in a deal that could create Africa’s biggest gold mine, producing about 900,000 ounces annually for the first five years of the joint venture.

(Reporting by Nelson Banya and Felix Njini; editing by David Goodman and Jason Neely)