17.

PROVISION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL REHABILITATION

The Group has made, and expects to make in the future, expenditures to comply with environmental laws and regulations, but cannot predict the full amount of such future expenditures. Estimated future reclamation costs are based principally on legal and regulatory requirements. The following is a reconciliation of the total liability for environmental rehabilitation:


	December 31, 2014			December 31, 2013
Provision for environmental rehabilitation
Opening balance		269.2			373.6
Addition to liabilities - continuing operations		36.7			10.3
Liabilities settled - continuing operations		(2.8	)		(2.5	)
Accretion of liability - continuing operations		15.4			10.4
Accretion of liability - discontinued operations		—			2.2
Barrick Yilgarn asset purchase		—			55.0
Disposal of discontinued operations		—			(154.9	)
Foreign currency translation adjustment		(18.4	)		(24.9	)

Closing balance		300.1			269.2

* South African, Ghanaian, Australian and Peruvian mining companies are required by law to undertake rehabilitation works as part of their ongoing operations. These environmental rehabilitation costs are funded as follows:

- Ghana - secured cash deposits (refer note 14) and reclamation bonds underwritten by banks to secure estimated costs of rehabilitation,

- South Africa - contributions into environmental trust funds (refer note 14) and guarantees,

- Australia - unconditional bank-guaranteed performance bonds to secure the estimated costs, and

- Peru - guarantees with annual deposits for proper compliance with the Mine Closure Plan.

The provision is calculated using the following undiscounted closure cost estimates:


	December 31, 2014		December 31, 2013
South Africa		32.3		33.3
Ghana		89.4		83.3
Australia		212.7		196.6
Peru		56.4		42.0

Total closure cost estimate ¹		390.8		355.2

(1)

Includes discounting of $90.7 million in the year ended December 31, 2014 (December 31, 2013: $86.0 million) in order to reconcile the gross closure cost estimate of $390.8 million (December 31, 2013: $355.2 million) to the provision for environmental rehabilitation of $300.1 million (December 31, 2013: $269.2 million)