DIFFICULTIES in some of the West African countries in which it operates is behind a one fifth decline in the shares of Randgold Resources this year, although Investec Asset Management tips the company to recover, according to a report by Bloomberg News which cited the comments of the asset manager’s analyst, Hunter Hillcoat.
“Randgold is good at working in Africa, at working with government and doing things the right way,” Hillcoat said. “It does tend to recover from these things, and hopefully this is the same case,” he told Bloomberg News.
However, Randgold has had a tough time. Randgold CEO, Mark Bristow, said this week that while the firm’s 2018 production guidance was intact, its Ivory Coast mine, Tongon, would miss its target following strike action at the mine. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Randgold shares the Kibali gold mine with AngloGold Ashanti, Bristow has led opposition by a number of mining companies operating there to mining code changes that have increased royalties on mineral exports, said Bloomberg News.
The share price is “suffering under the impact of the various events,” Hillcoat told the newswire. “Spearheading the response to the government in the DRC and then having the other problems doesn’t help,” he said.
Harmony Gold is the best performing gold stock this year, up about a quarter whilst other stocks including AngloGold Ashanti (-12%), Gold Fields (-13%) have been under pressure and Sibanye-Stillwater (-26%) have been under pressure, according to Bloomberg News.
