[miningmx.com] – GOLD miner Randgold Resources reported a 16% drop in first quarter profit from mining owing to lower gold prices and reduced production, said Reuters.
Mining profit fell to $143.9m for the quarter ended March 31 from $171m a year earlier, the newswire said. The company, which mines gold in Mali, Cote d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo, said gold sales rose 1% to $344.6m.
Commenting on the figures, Investec Securities said that while there was a view that Randgold was ‘ex-growth’, its future earnings estimates suggested “otherwise”.
It said that with gold production growing 4.3% a year on average between 2014 and 2017, earnings growth would be 17.6% a year or 8.4% at the current spot price of gold.
Numis Securities described the first quarter results as “flattish” quarter “.. as expected, tainted by Loulo issues, but big positives on cash generation and on the exploration front”.
Loulo, a mine in Mali, was the chief culprit of Randgold’s operational troubles after it suffered from a week of lost production due to primary mill gearbox failure, power interruptions, and lower grade.
