Mining code changes pose investment threat

JERSEY, CHANNEL ISLANDS -- (Marketwire) -- 02/05/13 --

TSX-V:IAE

RANDGOLD RESOURCES LIMITED
Incorporated in Jersey, Channel Islands
Reg. No. 62686
LSE Trading Symbol: RRS
NASDAQ Trading Symbol: GOLD


MINING CODE CHANGES POSE THREAT TO FUTURE INVESTMENT IN AFRICA


Cape Town, 5 February 2013- Mining code changes proposed by a number
of African countries will deter further investment there, Randgold
Resources chief executive Mark Bristow cautioned today.

Speaking at the Mining Indaba, Bristow said that with gold exploration
and mining shifting from the developed countries to the world's
emerging prospective regions, Africa had to compete for investment with
South America, Asia, the Pacific Rim, Eastern Europe and Russia. While
Africa had the advantage of great mineral wealth, its competitors
generally had better infrastructures, greater skills pools and more
sophisticated economies.

Bristow pointed out that in the countries where Randgold has
operations - Mali, the Cote d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of
Congo - the present mining codes returned a substantial slice of the
net revenue pie to the State in spite of the fact that Randgold had
funded the entire discovery and development cost and carried all the
risks."The host country is already a significant if not the main
beneficiary
of its mining activities. That is why it is disturbing that there is a
growing tendency among the sub-Saharan mining countries to want more
without giving anything back. Even a moderate change in their current
codes will diminish these countries' ability to compete for direct
fixed investment or to encourage reinvestment," Bristow said."There's a
much better way for these countries to get more from their
mining industries, and that is to participate positively in the value
creation process. As we've seen only too often in the mining industry,
mergers and acquisitions hardly ever deliver value to shareholders, let
alone other stakeholders. Real value, as I believe Randgold has
demonstrated over the years, is created by the discovery of
multi-million ounce gold deposits and their development into profitable
mines. Governments' role in this should be firstly to provide a
stable, business-friendly regime that will attract or at least not
drive away investors, and then to partner the mining company in the
development cycle, helping to drive the project up the value curve and
sharing fairly in its proceeds."



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