Randgold's Resource Base Expands
JERSEY, CHANNEL ISLANDS--(Marketwired - Mar 28, 2014) - Randgold Resources (
Randgold Resources Ltd.
Incorporated in Jersey, Channel Islands
Reg. No. 62686
LSE Trading Symbol: RRS
NASDAQ Trading Symbol: GOLD
RANDGOLD'S RESOURCE BASE EXPANDS, AS IT PLANS FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS
London, 28 March 2014 - Randgold Resources increased its total attributable mineral resources in 2013 despite depletion from mining in a year that delivered record production. The company's annual resource and reserve declaration, published today as part of its annual report for 2013, shows attributable resources up by 5% to 28.6million ounces while reserves, reflecting depletion, decreased by 8% to 15 million ounces.
Randgold reserve and resource management executive Rod Quick said all the group's mines were ramping up both production and grade, which inevitably impacted on its reserve inventory."We are confident, however, that we can replenish our reserves through ongoing exploration as well as resource conversion" he said. "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."
At Kibali, the giant gold mine Randgold is developing in the Democratic Republic of Congo, total reserves now stand at 11.6million ounces at 4.0g/t, up from 10.9 million ounces at 4.1g/t as a result of an updated mine design on a resource base which grew to 22 million ounces.
At Loulo in Mali, reserves decreased to 5.3 million ounces due to mining depletion, completion of the Yalea open pit and the redesign of the Gara underground mine to secure continued profitability by reducing capital development. The neighbouring Gounkoto open pit mine also reported lower reserves as a result of mining depletion, lower grades due to a change in the footwall modelling and the addition of some lower grade footwall and hanging wall gains. A drilling programme following up on the recently announced wide and high grade intersections will test the validity of the new model. Meanwhile, the latest results from the ongoing underground feasibility study at Gounkoto have confirmed a mineral resource of over a million ounces at more than 6.0g/t. Current indications are that the optimal exploitation of the underground resource will be from a decline position lower in the open pit.
In Cote d'Ivoire, Tongon's resources and reserves were depleted by mining and ongoing infill grade control drilling. Deeper drilling has highlighted the potential for higher grades below the southern zone pit and further drilling is planned to test the depth extensions. Based on current pay limits and the fact that Tongon is scheduled to repay its capital next year, exploration is focused on near-mine low grade resources which could extend the mine's life beyond the current seven
years.
Chief executive Mark Bristow said that, unlike most of the gold mining industry, Randgold had not needed to write down its reserves and resources as the gold price dropped because it had calculated its reserves at USUSD1000/oz and its resources at USUSD1500/oz for the past three years."We have looked closely at all our mines to ensure that they will still be profitable at USUSD1000/oz 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" he said."A key feature of the 10 year plan is that the second half only requires sustaining capital. Kibali has a reserve based plan that goes beyond 10 years at around 600000 ounces per annum. The Loulo-Gounkoto complex is currently scheduled to drop below 700000 ounces from 2020 but with the potential for resource conversion from its Yalea and Gara operations as well as from the high grade underground project at Gounkoto, we believe the complex can deliver more than 600000 ounces per year for the 10 years. Together with the Tongon life of mine extension programme, these potential reserve extensions should give us time to deliver a new world class discovery from our portfolio of quality greenfields projects spanning four of Africa's major gold regions."
Please click on the following link to view the full announcement.
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/4272D_1-2014-3-28.pdf
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
