MINING NEWS technical challenges in the rst six months , but output is scheduled to peak at 750 000 ounces in 2018 as the underground operation reaches full capacity , Randgold says . Other miners have been less successful in Congo . Randgold ' s partner , AngloGold , susp ended op erations in 2013 at the Mongbwalu project , also in northeastern Congo , saying that it couldn ' t make the economics of the project work . In the past decade , mining majors Rio Tinto Group , BHP Billiton Plc , Vale SA and De Beers have all held and abandoned mining licenses in Congo for different minerals without making headway .
Doing business Congo was ranked 184th out of 190 countries on the World Bank ' s ease-of-doing business survey in 2016 , but Randgold was able to bring Kibali from feasibility in 2010 to rst gold less than four years later . “ It ' s been way more successful than most people thought ,” said Hunter Hillcoat , an analyst at Investec in London . “ �ey operate their own little , dare I say , sovereign state , far removed from regional issues .” Randgold began due diligence on Kibali in 2006 , months a�er historic elections brought a nal conclusion to a violent civil war that le� millions of Congolese dead . It acquired the asset in 2009 through a purchase of Moto Goldmines Ltd . “ Before Moto every major gold company in the world had this asset and did nothing ,” Willem Jacobs , chief operating officer for central and east Africa , said at the site in November . “ It is very hard for big companies to do what we have done here .”
Negotiation possible A new project would bene t from the infrastructure Randgold has built and the lessons the company has learned since 2009 , making it easier to replicate Kibali ' s success , Jacobs said . “ Every country has its own challenges , but the Congolese government is enormously commercial ,” he said of the complicated operating environment that many miners have failed to overcome . “ You can always talk , you can always negotiate .” Gold prices hit $ 1 257 on 27 February , well below a record high of $ 1 921.17 an ounce in 2011 . Randgold , which says all of its mines make a pro t at a price of $ 1 000 , has avoided the worst of the slump so far : It has returned more than 500 % to shareholders in the past decade . �at ' s more than double the second-best performer on the Bloomberg senior gold miner index and one of only six out of the 16 biggest gold members to have given shareholders positive returns over the period . Competitors AngloGold Ashanti , Barrick Gold Corp ., Newmont Mining Corp . and Kinross Gold Corp have all lost money for shareholders . “ For a long time they were realistically one of the only invest-able gold names listed in London if you were a large-scale investor ,” said Baring ' s Burstow . �at ' s a title slowly coming under pressure from miners such as Acacia Mining Plc and Centamin Plc , Burstow says . “ People have con dence that they can deliver . We just have to watch them carefully .”
FMDZ | Jan - Feb 2017 | Page11