Randgold's Tongon mine back up, production guidance cut

Randgold Resources' Tongon gold mine in Ivory Coast was back in business on Wednesday after management lifted the lock-out imposed on workers following a protracted strike, with production guidance for the year revised lower.

"Negotiations between management, workers, community leaders and the government created an agreement under which workers are being re-employed in phases aligned to the start-up of the mine's various sections," the company said.

"The agreement also stipulates that the previous discussions, aimed at finally ending the occasional industrial unrest at the mine, should be resumed where they were interrupted by the strike in July."

During the lock-out period, management, senior employees and a skeleton crew prepared Tongon for resumed production by servicing the processing facilities, including relining the mills, and maintaining the tailings storage facility and access to the two open cast operations.

Randgold said the mine is now fully operational and the phased return of the full employee complement is expected to be complete by the weekend. However, it added that the work stoppage has necessitated a revision of its previous production guidance for the year which is now estimated at 230 000 ounces of gold.

The company said earlier this month that production for the year was expected to be 250,000 ounces, down from previous guidance of 290,000 because of the strike action that began in July.

Chief executive Mark Bristow said the company remained a committed partner to Côte d'Ivoire. He said that despite the setbacks at Tongon, the overall group production outlook remained within the guidance given at the start of the year, albeit towards the lower end of the range, supported by Loulo-Gounkoto remaining on target and the continued outperformance at Kibali.

At 1010 BST, the shares were flat at 4,950p.