Randgold Resources’ Tongon gold mine has paid off its shareholders’ loans of US$448 million, used to partially fund the US$580 million capital investment in building the mine five years ago.
The Tongon mine is located within the Nielle exploration permit in the north of Côte d’lvoire, 55 km south of the border with Mali. Randgold has an 89% interest in the mine, with the State of Côte d’lvoire owning 10% and a local company owning the remaining 1%.
The mine produced 227 koz gold at total cash cost of US$872/oz in 2014, and, after completion of a crushing plant upgrade and Phase 1 of the flotation circuit upgrade, the company is targeting gold production of 260 koz this year.
At the end of 2014, reserves were 30.0 Mt at a grade of 2.3 g/t for 2.2 Moz of gold contained.
Speaking from the mine on Saturday, chief executive, Mark Bristow, said “Tongon has already paid close to US$90 million to the Ivorian state in the form of royalties and taxes and the country will now benefit even more from the dividends the government will receive through its 10% carried interest in the mine as well as the increased revenue when Tongon starts paying full corporate tax at the end of this year”. He noted that since its commissioning five years ago, Tongon had also contributed more than US$600 million to the Ivorian economy in the form of payments to local suppliers and had invested almost US$6 million in community upliftment projects.
Randgold Resources’ Tongon mine pays off shareholders’ loans: RRS