Gold miner and the metal itself help in fight against malaria

When AngloGold Ashanti began a malaria control programme at its gold mine in Obuasi in the Ashanti region of southwest Ghana in 2005, the main local hospital was handling 6,800 cases of the disease a month.

Almost a decade later, and after an annual investment of $1.5m, it has cut that volume to about 100 a month, and as low as 47 in March. "This is very positive," says Sylvester Segbaya, director of the company's malaria control programme. "We've sharply reduced the burden."

Often nature works synergistically, generating problems and solutions in the same place. This applies to gold mining, which often brings large volumes of people close to areas of ­stagnant water in humid climates where mosquitoes can breed.

The industry risks ­harbouring - if not encouraging malaria - through artisanal mining processes, during which gold is washed and sorted with water, and more generally by bringing employees into high-risk areas.

Yet both the mining companies and the precious metal itself can play an important role in tackling the disease. The juxtaposition of a lethal disease and large companies extracting gold is beginning to mobilise greater efforts to tackle malaria.

With 2,500 of the malaria cases among AngloGold Ashanti's own employees a decade ago - amounting to a third of its workforce - there was a strong element of self-interest in it doing more.

With an average of three days absence per infection, the company estimated it was losing 7,500 man-days a month and spending $660,000 a year on treatment. Malaria caused absenteeism from employment and from schools in the local community.

"Malaria from the very word 'go' is a big problem," Mr Segbaya says. "We saw it affecting the productivity of our employees and everything else. Even when staff got back to work, they were not as fit and strong as they used to be, and had lower output. It was harming our operations."

The company placed great emphasis on indoor residual spraying to kill and deter mosquitoes, ­carrying out programmes every six months. Large-scale government programmes had been carried out several decades ago, but since neglected.

It also launched larviciding in selected places to kill mosquito eggs. More recently, AngloGold has ensured that all suspected cases are confirmed with testing ahead of treatment.

It has begun to distribute bed nets alongside government programmes, al­though Mr Segbaya says there is still some debate on their value at the company.

"The challenge we saw was that people had the option to use the nets or not," he argues. "We didn't want to leave the results to individual's discretion. Data have shown that people use them only 40 or 50 per cent of the time."

However, the company's success in this area has led to its appointment - ­unusual for a business - as the principal recipient of a grant in Ghana for bed net distribution by the Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and Malaria. It also advises the US President's Malaria Initiative on insecticide spraying.

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Just as importantly, the company has begun to expand its programme to its other mines in Ghana and the various countries where it operates, including Guinea, Mali and Tanzania.

Its thinking has also helped inspire other mining companies to wage war on malaria, including Newmont of the US and Kinross of Canada.

Critics say that larger companies could be doing more to tackle malaria, for instance increasing the focus on artisanal mining communities.

Many people also point to the primary role of government in operating malaria control programmes.

Mr Segbaya says: "The problem is always that government support has been very limited. We had to follow with the funding."

In the absence of sufficient public sector financing and activity, Mr Segbaya says he is working with Ghana's government to create "a national fund overseen by high-profile people with integrity, and with companies to make their contribution".

Meanwhile, there is another important role that gold plays in the fight against malaria.

Trevor Keel, head of technology at the World Gold Council, says the metal is an essential part of modern rapid diagnostic tests for those infected with the parasite. Some 200m kits are distributed globally each year.

The malaria antibody is attached to gold nanoparticles during manufacture. These will attract any malaria antigens in a blood sample. That turns the particles from red to purple, resulting in a "positive" two-line readout on the device.

"Without the gold, these tests would be useless," says Mr Keel.

His organisation is now working on support for the development of a new thermal contrast technology that will improve the sensitivity of standard rapid diagnostic tests.

More generally, gold itself is finding new applications, both in diagnostics for a wider range of diseases and even in some treatments, such as for dysentery.

Gold may find a broader range of medical uses, while the businesses that extract it are mobilising to tackle the malaria with which mining can all too often be associated.

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