Randgold in dividend hike as profit lifts
RANDGOLD Resources has seen its profits surge by 259 per cent, allowing it to double its dividend, it announced yesterday.
The gold miner, whose main operations are in West Africa, attributed the figures to the strong performance of its Mali mines and rises in the price of gold.
Randgold posted full-year profits for 2011 of $433.4m (£274.6m) with output rising 58 per cent to 696,023 ounces.
That was in line with guidance, although the miner had already trimmed that guidance twice after operational problems.
The FTSE 100 company said its Mali mines had offset weaknesses in production in the Ivory Coast after poor weather and other practical issues had taken had taken their toll.
Production at the Tongon mine in Ivory Coast fell by 40 per cent in the fourth quarter, triggered by problems attached to connecting the site to the national grid in the country.
However, the project was unaffected by political unrest in the country last year. There were also some issues with its Kibali project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Chief executive Mark Bristow said: “Randgold’s long-term strategy of building sustainably profitable gold-mining businesses through discovery and development continues to pay off.”
The Jersey-registered company, with stock market listings in London and New York, proposed doubling its dividend to $0.40 per share on the back of a surge in earnings per share.
Randgold forecast that production will rise to between 825,000 and 865,000 ounces in 2012.
Analysts are tipping growth to come from the Loulo-Gounkoto mines on Mali’s western border.
Production rocketed by 34 per cent and profits from its mining operations there by nearly 90 per cent. Randgold added that it expected costs to remain at around the same level for 2012, before dropping over the next five years.