Randgold Resources eyes new opportunities in Cote d’Ivoire
FTSE 100-listed miner Randgold Resources is “aggressively exploring” further opportunities in Cote d’Ivoire, its chief executive said this weekend.
Randgold owns and operates Cote d’Ivoire’s largest gold mine at Tongon, which went into production at the end of 2010 and has already delivered over 600,000 ounces of gold.
Mark Bristow told a media briefing in the West African country that the company’s geologists were using its portfolio of 15 permits to search for further gold deposits elsewhere in the country.
Bristow also said that Cote d’Ivoire could become one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest exploration opportunities if its regulatory framework remains investor-friendly.
The Ivorian government has put the mining code under review.
Randgold’s Tongon mine was commissioned during the unrest that followed the presidential election and initially suffered from an erratic power supply and some start-up issues.
Bristow said that these problems are being addressed through a number of plant expansion and upgrade projects and that the mine’s performance is steadily improving.