With the recent announcement of a doubled profit over 2004, there
is little doubt that London- and Nasdaq-listed gold-miner Randgold
Resources is currently one of the more successful juniors operating
in Africa. In its financial year-end report for 2005, Randgold
Resources reported a net profit of $41-million for the year to
December, more than doubling its 2004 earnings of $18,8-million, on
the back of a 54% increase in production and a buoyant gold-price.
This financial success is attributable to the impressive
south africa lump ore crusheroperational performance of the company’s two West African
mines, Morila and Loulo.
The company’s Mali-based Morila joint venture produced 651
110 oz of gold during the year, outstrippinoperating of a cone crushersg its 2004 output by
some 140 000 oz, and its new Loulo mine, which came into production
in the last quarter of the year and shipped its first bullion in
November, contributed 67 984 oz to the production total. However,
thespare parts for crusher success of Randgold Resources should not only be attributable
to the performance of its existing operations but also to the
company’s philosophy of creating value through
discovery.
In an interview with Mining Weekly, Randgold Resources CEO Dr Mark
Bristow explains that the key component of the company’s
growth strategy is an aggressive exploration programme, designed to
discover profitable ounces and build a well-balanced portfolio.
“This process constantly feeds in fresh prospects at the base
of our resource triangle and evaluates these to produce a layer of
targets from which we select our feasibility projects,”
explains Bristow.
“The concept behind a resources triangle is to constantly
invest in the bottom and systematically promote the most viable
projects to the top, enabling each project to gain value as it is
rolled out.
“It is very difficult for mining houses to create value
unless they are able to discover and develop new deposits as
orebodies are not inexhaustible.” In comparison to most
gold-mining companies operating in Africa, Randgold Resources has
one of the most well-structured resource triangles with 99 out of
its 159 targets located at the bottom, or in the identified
geological anomaly stage of the triangle. Following this, the
company has 48 exploration targets, 12 feasibility projects and
four mine and mine-evaluation projects in Senegal, C