AGAMal is a wholly owned subsidiary of AngloGold Ashanti Ghana. In 2005, the Edwin Cade Hospital which serves the Obuasi mine, recorded an average 6,800 malaria cases each month. Of these, 2,500 were mine workers. Given the cost to the company and to the community caused by this illness, an integrated-malaria control programme was initiated. With initial funding of $1.7 million, the programme aimed to reduce the incidence of malaria by 50% within two years.
Within two years, the incidence of malaria had reduced by more than 75%. An intervention based on indoor residual spraying (IRS), together with other control methods, was implemented. AGAMal now operates in the entire upper West Region, in three districts in the Upper West, and in Obuasi. AngloGold Ashanti Ghana makes an annual contribution of $650,000 to AGAMal.
AGAMal also conducts IRS across all prisons and prison officers’ residences. It supports other mining companies in implementing similar malaria control programmes and conducts advanced laboratory analysis for the United States President Malaria Initiative’s (PMI) VectorLink project in Ghana. At the 2019 Ghana Mining Industry Awards, Obuasi’s malaria programme won the Corporate Social Investment Award of the Year.