28th Mar 2014 10:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - Randgold Resources Ltd Friday announced that its attributable resources increased but its reserves fell by the end of 2013 due to mining depletion.
The major mining company said its total attributable mineral resources increased by 5% to 28.6 million despite depletion from mining in a year that delivered record production.
However, Randgold said that its reserves fell 8% to 15 million ounces, reflecting the fact that the company ramped up both production and grade during the period, impacting on its inventory.
"We are confident, however, that we can replenish our reserves through ongoing exploration as well as resource conversion" Reserve and Resource Management Executive Rod Quick said in a statement. "This confidence is based on the robustness of our current five year plan as well as the prospectivity of the regions where we operate, as demonstrated by our growing resources."
In February, Randgold announced that its full-year production increased 15% to 910,374 ounces of gold from 794,844 ounces the previous year and its quarterly production increased 31% to 281,477 ounces compared from the same quarter in 2012.
The company said that at Kibali in the Democratic Republic of Congo, its total reserves now stand at 11.6 million ounces at 4.0 grams per tonne, rather than 10.9 million ounces at 4.1 grams per tonne, as a result of an updated mine design on a resource base which grew to 22 million ounces.
Randgold also said that reserves at its Loulo and Gounkoto sites in Mali, along with its Tongon site in Ivory Coast fell during the period due to mining depletion.
The company said that, unlike many gold miners, it has not needed to write down its reserves and resources as the gold price dropped during 2013, as it calculated its reserves at USD1,000 per ounce and its resources at USD1,500 per ounce for the past three years. London spot gold prices were quoted at USD1,296.68 Friday.
"We have looked closely at all our mines to ensure that they will still be profitable at USD1 000 per ounce and we'll continue to review our operations against a range of gold price scenarios. We've also put a solid budget in place for 2014, kept our rolling five-year plan intact and are now building this into a ten-year plan," Chief Executive Mark Bristow said in a statement.
Randgold Resources shares were up 1.7% to 4,561.00 pence, putting it in the top FTSE 100 risers Friday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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