African Barrick Gold (LON:ABG) said production in the third quarter was reduced by 10,000 ounces after 40% of its mining department was suspended on suspicion of criminal activity.
The ensuing delays are expected to reduce full year production by 30,000 ounces, pushing it down to the same levels as in the previous year.
As was to be expected, shareholders were not happy with the news as shares in the company dropped on the back of the announcement and were down 8.5% at midday.
The miner has uncovered what it said was an organised and systematic onsite fuel theft, which has impacted production at Buzwagi. Investigations that were subsequently carried out led it to believe that its mining department was infiltrated by criminal fuel theft syndicates.
The subsequent suspension of 60 employees working in the mining department and a number of contractors resulted in delays to the mining of higher grade ore and a production loss of 10,000 ounces of gold in the third quarter.
The company has previously said that the operational initiatives at Buzwagi were on track to deliver production in line with the guidance stated in its interim results, though at the lower range of 750-800,000 ounces.
As a consequence of its actions to address the fuel theft, full year production is expected to be comparable to that of 2009, when the company produced 716,000 ounces.