GOLD MINING
Market conditions test Randgold Resources
The London-listed gold miner faces challenges in African states where it operates — Mali, DRC and Ivory Coast
London — Randgold Resources’s celebrated ability to operate in Africa is being tested on all fronts, and it is taking a toll on the London-listed gold miner’s stock. For most of the past decade, Randgold shares were the best performers among gold miners tracked by Bloomberg. Now they are among the worst, sinking 20% so far in 2018. Randgold made its reputation on its ability to deliver complicated projects in remote locations but recently it has faced challenges in the three countries where it operates. Industrial action in Ivory Coast forced CEO Mark Bristow to announce on Tuesday that the Tongon project was likely to miss its 2018 production target. In Mali, the company is in a long-running dispute with the government over a claim of as much as $200m in back taxes. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Randgold has been the most prominent opponent of a new mining code, with Bristow often acting as spokesman for the industry, while mining firms with more at stake keep lower pr...
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