Ashanti Restructures Its Board of Directors.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 23, 2000

Further to the announcement made on 16 February 2000, Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited ("Ashanti" or the "Company") announces the appointment of the following additional non-executive directors of the Company with effect from 22 February 2000:

-- Mr Alex Ashiabor

-- Mr Ekow N Awoonor

-- Dr Chester A Crocker

-- Dr Kwabena Duffuor

-- Dr Michael Martineau

Brief background details of the above-mentioned non-executive directors are as follows:

-- Mr Alex Ashiabor, a Ghanaian, age 66, is the Executive Chairman

of Metropolitan and Allied Bank (Ghana) Limited, and a member of

the Board of Trustees of Ghana Institute of Statistical, Social

and Economic Research (University of Ghana). From 1962, he held

various senior appointments in the Bank of Ghana and Ministry of

Finance and was Governor of the Bank of Ghana from 1977 to 1982,

when he was also Chairman of the Board of Ashanti.

From 1982 until 1993, Alex Ashiabor served with the United

Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva

and was the principal adviser to the UNCTAD Secretary-General on

international commodity trade issues as well as on World Bank and

IMF Structural Adjustment Programmes in Africa. More recently, he

has been a consultant for the World Bank supported Financial

Sector Adjustment Programme Secretariat for the reform of the

banking sector in Ghana. This included responsibility for the

restructuring of Ghana's nine state-owned banks and two major

divestitures.

Mr Ashiabor graduated from the London School of Economics with a

B.Sc. Economics degree with honours in Money and Banking and he

holds a post graduate diploma in Economics and Business Finance

from Stanford University.

-- Mr Ekow Nyamekye Awoonor, a Ghanaian, age 51, is the Principal of

Awoonor Law Consultancy, a corporate and investment law firm in

Accra. He is also a director of the SSB Bank Limited and the

African Tiger Mutual Fund Limited, both in Ghana.

Mr Awoonor holds law degrees from the University of Ghana, Legon

and the Temple School of Law, Philadelphia and is a member of the

Ghana Bar Association.

-- Dr Chester A Crocker, an American, age 59. He served as a US

Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1981 to

1989 and is currently the James R Schlesinger professor of

strategic studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign

Service. His teaching and research focus on international

security, conflict management and mediation strategy. Dr Crocker

is Chairman of the Board of the United States Institute of Peace

and is an advisor on strategy and negotiations to a number of US

and European companies.

Dr Crocker has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio State

University, and read his Masters and Ph. D at the Johns Hopkins

University's School of Advanced International Studies in the US.

-- Dr Kwabena Duffuor, a Ghanaian, age 57, is the Governor of the

Bank of Ghana, has served as a director of a number of Ghanaian

companies and is currently a director of the Ghana Cocoa Board

and the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Company Limited.

Dr Duffuor holds a B. Sc. degree in Economics from the University

of Ghana, Legon, an MBA in Finance & Banking, an MA in Economics

and a Ph. D in International Finance from the Syracuse

University, USA.

-- Dr Michael Peter Martineau, a British national, age 55, is a

director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Axmin Limited

and Carpathian Gold Limited and a director of Adryx Mining &

Metals Limited. He has served as a director of several mining and

exploration companies in Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom

and the USA including Cluff Resources Plc and SAMAX Resources

Ltd, which were acquired by Ashanti in 1996 and 1998

respectively.

Dr Martineau graduated with first class honours in Geology and

Mineralogy from Oxford University, where he was also awarded a

doctorate in Philosophy.

Commenting on the appointments, Mr Philip Tarsh, acting Chairman, said "I welcome the additional breadth of experience that these new directors will bring to the Board" and he added that "... as part of its present restructuring, the Board intends to appoint two more independent non-executive directors in due course, following which it will appoint co-Chairmen."