Ready and resourceful

A twenty-first birthday is a good time to take stock, and often comes with the shocking realisation that you’re leaving the junior circuit and piling into the adult world with all its attendant debts, responsibilities and requirements to get out of bed before midday.

At 21, Randgold Resources can look back with pride on the progress it has made in building an Africa-focused gold mining company, discovering multimillion ounce gold deposits in some rather fruity parts of the continent and developing them into world-class mines.

Randgold has built mines in Mali, Senegal, Côte d’ivoire and the DRC, all but one of which were developed on deposits that were discovered by its own geologists. The company’s exploration arm provides a constant supply of targets that are then weeded out with a set of filters that red card the duds and push the quality prospects through the system, and CEO Mark Bristow believes that there is every chance of three new projects making their way through the investment filters in the next five years.

The company is also making a good fist of managing its more mature operations, and signs are that it will come in at the top end of its 2017 production guidelines at a cash cost below $600/oz. It is financially robust, with a cash pile of $572.8m, and it remains committed to sustainability, building relationships with the governments and people of the countries in which it operates so that it is not seen to be exploiting the mineral wealth, but rather unlocking the value of their mineral resources in a mutually beneficial manner.

When the ninjas of the DIY world are forced to face the family with tears in their eyes, you know there’s trouble