Abidjan - Randgold Resources plans to invest $70 million for feasibility studies and drilling at its Massawa gold mining project in Senegal, Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said.
The company has discovered a new gold deposit estimated at two million ounces at Massawa, bringing total resources there to 4.8 million ounces, Bristow told reporters on Saturday, during a company media event in Abijan.
“We will update the feasibility studies in Massawa because the project has been hampered by a lack of power,” Bristow said, noting that that the company is developing another gold target, the Sofia, near Massawa in eastern Senegal.
Randgold’s feasibility studies for all projects are based on an assumed gold price of $1,000 an ounce, Bristow said, well below Friday’s spot price of about $1,322. Gold prices have risen about 25 percent in 2016.
Turning to the Tongon mine in northern Ivory Coast, Bristow forecast production of 260 000 ounces this year, rising to 300 000 in 2017. Power shortages have also crimped output there recently, he said, but the mine remains profitable.
Bristow said the precious metals company will concentrate on exploration in West Africa, and had invested $823 million into its Ivory Coast operations since 2011.
Feasibility studies should also be completed within the next few months on deposits in Mankono Gbongogo, south-west of Tongon, he said.
BLOOMBERG
CORRECTION: Subsequent to publication, the company has alerted IOL to the following factual errors with the wire copy: Randgold has spent $70m on exploration at Massawa which has identified 4.8 million ounces of resources. The company is not yet developing the nearby new target of Sofia. In fact, CEO Mark Bristow said Randgold needed to identify an additional 1 million reserve ounces at the Sofia target to make the Massawa project viable.