3rd Feb 2005 11:18
Randgold Resources Ld03 February 2005 Randgold Resources Limited Incorporated in Jersey, Channel Islands Reg. No. 62686 LSE Trading Symbol: RRS Nasdaq Trading Symbol: GOLD BALL MILLS SET SAIL FOR RANDGOLD RESOURCES' NEW LOULO MINE IN MALI Richards Bay, South Africa, 3 February 2005 (LSE:RRS) (Nasdaq:GOLD) - The twohuge ball mills destined for Randgold Resources' new gold mine at Loulo in Maliembarked today on the second leg of their journey, departing from Richards Bayharbour on a chartered vessel to the port of Dakar in Senegal. This follows the first stage of this demanding logistical exercise, where theconvoy of enormous mill shells, ends and feed chutes were taken by road -often against traffic - to Richards Bay from Vereeniging near Johannesburg.The journey took exactly eight days and required an escort of five policevehicles as well as technicians from both Eskom and Telkom to lift the powerlines that the trucks needed to pass under. Each of the mill shells is being transported in a single piece measuring 5.5metres in diameter and 8.0 metres in length, and weighing some 103 tonnes. FromDakar, the mills will be transported about 1 000 kilometres by land to theirfinal destination in Mali. The Loulo Mine is being developed at a cash cost of US$85 million, of whichRandgold Resources has spent some R200 million in South Africa to date. Work onthe mine, which is scheduled to go into production in the middle of 2005, iscurrently on schedule. Randgold Resources has been active in Mali for nearly ten years and has played amajor part in the growth of the country's gold mining industry, currently rankedthird in Africa. The company's total investment in Mali has topped US$300million as the new mine at Loulo takes shape. John Steele, Randgold Resources' general manager: capital projects, said fromMali that it was the company's policy to source its materials from West andSouth Africa to the largest extent possible. This was supported by thesophisticated supply chain it had developed in Africa, as well as the manypartnerships it had with local entrepreneurs throughout Africa. General manager of the Loulo mine, Amadou Konta noted that aside from thesubstantial wealth directly created for Mali through gold mining, the country'seconomy was also benefiting greatly from such knock-on benefits asinfrastructure development, job creation, the growth of feeder industries andinvestment in sustainable development within the local communities by the majormining companies. RANDGOLD RESOURCES ENQUIRIES: Chief Executive - Dr Mark Bristow +44 779 775 2288 Financial Director - Roger Williams +44 791 709 8939 Investor & Media Relations - Kathy du Plessis +27 11 728 4701, Cell: +27 (0) 83 266 5847 [email protected] Website: www.randgoldresources.com DISCLAIMER: Statements made in this document with respect to RandgoldResources' current plans, estimates, strategies and beliefs and other statementsthat are not historical facts are forward-looking statements about the futureperformance of Randgold Resources. These statements are based on management'sassumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it.Randgold Resources cautions you that a number of important risks anduncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from thosediscussed in the forward-looking statements, and therefore you should not placeundue reliance on them. The potential risks and uncertainties include, amongothers, risks associated with: fluctuations in the market price of gold, goldproduction at Morila, the development of Loulo and estimates of resources,reserves and mine life. For a discussion on such risk factors, refer to theannual report on Form 20-F for the year ended 31 December 2003, which was filedwith the Securities Exchange Commission on 30 June 2004. Randgold Resourcesassumes no obligation to update information in this release. Cautionary Note toUS Investors: The United States Securities Exchange Commission (the 'SEC')permits companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only proven andprobable ore reserves. We use certain terms in this release, such as "resources", that the SEC does not recognise and strictly prohibits us from including inour filings with the SEC. Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or anypart of our resources will ever be converted into reserves which qualify as 'proven and probable reserves' for the purposes of the SEC's industry guidenumber 7. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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