An agreement has been reached that will save the troubled Ashanti Goldfields company in Ghana from collapse.

The deal -- which involves the Ghanaian government, major shareholder Lonmin, and a group of dissident investors -- was announced after two days of talks in Accra which resulted in a board shake-up. Five directors are to go, in addition to the chief financial officer, whose resignation was announced earlier.

But the chief executive, Sam Jonah, is staying on. The company will now gain access to a one-hundred-milllion-dollar loan to develop a promising mine in Tanzania, which can then be partially sold off.

Ashanti is the third largest gold producer in Africa and got into difficulties last year after incurring losses of more than five-hundred-million dollars in forward selling operations designed to reduce future market risks.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service