9th Aug 2018 08:40
LONDON (Alliance News) - Randgold Resources Ltd on Thursday posted a decrease in profit from mining, increased costs, and lower gold sales and production which led to a year-on-year drop in profit for the the second quarter of the current year.
For the three months to June-end, the miner recorded pretax profit of USD74.3 million, down from USD150.2 million in the comparative year ago period, on revenue of USD283.7 million from USD336.8 million.
Gold sales for the second quarter fell to USD411.5 million from USD422.1 million, with an average gold price of USD1,299 per ounce versus USD1,254 per ounce.
Randgold's Loulo-Gounkoto mine in Mali recorded gold production of 150,117 ounces, down from 194,091 ounces a year ago due to decrease in tonnes processed and lower grades.
Production at the company's Tongon mine in Ivory Coast was affected by industrial strikes. The mine produced 65,259 gold ounces in the quarter, down from 77,260 ounces a year ago.
Randgold's Kibali mine recorded a 43% year-on-year increase in quarterly production to 201,742 ounces, however, due to ramp up of underground mining and shaft delivery and continued improvement in throughput and recovery.
"The Tongon work stoppage is obviously a challenge, but we take comfort from the government's leadership in ensuring measures are taken to protect the assets and that they are dealing with the situation. We are still assessing its impact but at this stage we still believe that, given Kibali's strong performance, we are on track to be within the group production and cost guidance for 2018," Chief Executive Mark Bristow said.
For the first half, the company's pretax profit declined to USD161.6 million from USD269.8 million, on a revenue of USD556.9 million and USD653.5 million, respectively. Gold sales for the period totaled USD803.3 million versus USD831.7 million.
Shares in Randgold Resources were trading 2.7% lower at 5,354.00 pence each on Thursday morning.
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