JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The gold mining industry is running the risk of becoming irrelevant to the investment community.
“It hasn’t delivered much value for a long time,” Randgold Resources CEO Dr Mark Bristow commented to Mining Weekly Online during an interview to mark the company’s presentation of first-quarter results, which saw a 22% jump from the company’s new Kibali underground gold mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and a new broom sweep impressively at Tongon in Côte d’Ivoire.
As an operator of five gold mines in three African countries, the 23-year-old Randgold has been an industry exception in the consistent manner in which it has created value through the discovery, development and efficient operation of what have become highly profitable mines.
At Randgold’s annual general meeting earlier this month, shareholders approved a final dividend of $2 a share, which represents a 100% increase on the prior year and takes the dividend increase in the last 11 years to 1 900%.
However, the lack of overall industry performance has been marked, which is presenting opportunities to create greater investor relevance and better management through industry consolidation and asset rearrangement, in much the same way as has happened in the base metals and oil and gas industries.
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