30th Apr 2018 09:31
LONDON (Alliance News) - Randgold Resources Ltd said Monday its Ivory Coast gold mine was expected to "claw back" some of the lost production due to industrial action as it comes back onto full capacity.
First-quarter production at the Tongon mine was hurt by work stoppages which begun with the employees of the mining contractor and then spread to other parts of its operations. As a result, Randgold reduced its guidance for 2018 for the mine to 290,000 ounces of gold.
It is now making a "determined" effort to recover "most" of the lost output during this period. Operations are now back in full production, the FTSE 100 miner said.
"To mitigate the downtime effect and lost plant throughput," Randgold added, "Tongon processed ore from the run-of-mine and scats stockpiles during the stoppages and also used the opportunity to upgrade parts of the plant to achieve a higher and more consistent throughput going forward."
The company noted that the Ivory Coast government had been supportive of Randgold's attempts to resolve the issue.
"The history of Tongon has reflected the occasionally turbulent socio-political nature of its environment and a misunderstanding of the mining business which is a new activity in the country, but management has dealt effectively with the challenges that have come their way," Randgold Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said.
"The mine is managed by a majority Ivorian team and of its 1,700 employees, only 40 are expatriates," Bristow added. "Their record speaks for itself: since it was commissioned in 2010 Tongon has produced 2.7 million ounces of gold and in 2017 it posted record results, despite the slow start to the year."
"Tongon has three-and-a-half years of life left as things stand but we are actively looking for means to extend this and a number of exciting near-mine opportunities are currently being evaluated by the exploration team," Bristow added. "We're also exploring for new gold discoveries elsewhere in our large permit portfolio in Cote d'Ivoire, where we intend to retain a long term presence."
Shares in Randgold were flat at 5,916.00 pence on Monday.
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