Mar 29 2014
Randgold Resources increased its total attributable mineral resources in 2013 despite depletion from mining in a year that delivered record production. The company's annual resource and reserve declaration, published today as part of its annual report for 2013, shows attributable resources up by 5% to 28.6million ounces while reserves, reflecting depletion, decreased by 8% to 15 million ounces.
Randgold reserve and resource management executive Rod Quick said all the group's mines were ramping up both production and grade, which inevitably impacted on its reserve inventory."We are confident, however, that we can replenish our reserves through ongoing exploration as well as resource conversion" he said. "This confidence is based on the robustness of our current five year plan as well as the prospectivity of the regions where we operate, as demonstrated by our growing resources."
At Kibali, the giant gold mine Randgold is developing in the Democratic Republic of Congo, total reserves now stand at 11.6million ounces at 4.0g/t, up from 10.9 million ounces at 4.1g/t as a result of an updated mine design on a resource base which grew to 22 million ounces.
At Loulo in Mali, reserves decreased to 5.3 million ounces due to mining depletion, completion of the Yalea open pit and the redesign of the Gara underground mine to secure continued profitability by reducing capital development. The neighbouring Gounkoto open pit mine also reported lower reserves as a result of mining depletion, lower grades due to a change in the footwall modelling and the addition of some lower grade footwall and hanging wall gains. A drilling programme following up on the recently announced wide and high grade intersections will test the validity of the new model. Meanwhile, the latest results from the ongoing underground feasibility study at Gounkoto have confirmed a mineral resource of over a million ounces at more than 6.0g/t. Current indications are that the optimal exploitation of the underground resource will be from a decline position lower in the open pit.
Please click on the following link to view the full announcement.
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/4275D_1-2014-3-28.pdf
Source: http://www.randgoldresources.com