Persistent power cuts have hurt Randgold’s mining in Ivory Coast
PERSISTENT power cuts in Ivory Coast over the past several months had adversely affected operational costs and output of Randgold Resources’ Tongon mine, chief executive Mark Bristow said.
Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest cocoa producer and the West Africa region’s biggest economy, like many countries in the region, is struggling to meet skyrocketing electricity demand to power its expanding post-war economy.
Bristow told a news conference in Abidjan on Saturday that power supply to the mine had suffered difficulties since April. Randgold is the secondbiggest power consumer in Ivory Coast after the national refinery. “The load-shedding was done in a brutal manner and without forewarning. This has had a negative impact on production cost and output.”
Bristow said because of the power cuts, operation costs had risen to 16c per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from 6c.
However, he said Randgold remained optimistic for its operations in Ivory Coast because the government had launched several projects to improve power supply. Randgold owns 89 percent of Tongon while the Ivorian government has a 10 percent stake and a local company owns 1 percent.
Bristow said he
was expecting a significant discovery from another permit after a spell of explorations.
“We have high hopes with regards to our Boundiali permit. Initial exploration results are giving us high hopes. We will wait for the end of the rainy season to have more detailed results,” he said.