Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
London- and Nasdaq-listed gold producer Randgold Resources Ltd. (LON:RRS) (NASDAQ:GOLD) stocks went up 3.5 percent after the West Africa-focused miner reported a more than fourfold rise in net profit for the year ended December 2011 due to higher gold prices and a significant increase in production.
Randgold Resources, which credited the substantial growth to increased production at its African mines, recorded a profit of $433.4-million for the period, compared with 2010’s earnings of $120.6-million.
Production jumped 58% to 696,023 ounces owing to increased contributions from its Loulo complex, in Mali and Tongon gold mine, in Côte d’Ivoire. The Randgold/AngloGold Ashanti Morila mine joint venture in Mali, which was now a dump treatment operation, passed the six-million-ounce total production mark during the fourth quarter.
Fourth-quarter profit rose by 11% from $136.2-million during the third quarter to $136.2-million. This was a 323% year-on-year increase.
“The record results represented a significant achievement, particularly when seen against the background of the major developmental projects and issues the company had to handle during the year,” said Randgold CEO Mark Bristow in a statement.
Bristow referred to expansion programmes at Loulo and Tongon, the commissioning of Gounkoto and the rapid advance of the large Kibali project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Randgold plans to produce about 950,000 ounces next year and 1.2 million ounces in 2015. The company proposed doubling its dividend to 40 cents a share.
