Unlocking Tongon's full potential

JERSEY, CHANNEL ISLANDS--(Marketwired - Jan 26, 2014) - Randgold Resources (NASDAQ: GOLD) (LSE: RRS)

RANDGOLD RESOURCES LIMITED
Incorporated in Jersey, Channel Islands
Reg. No. 62686
LSE Trading Symbol: RRS
NASDAQ Trading Symbol: GOLD


FLOTATION EXPANSION PROJECT TO UNLOCK TONGON'S FULL POTENTIAL


Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, 25 January 2014  -  Efficiency enhancement
projects at the Tongon gold mine have boosted its performance
significantly, and the planned expansion of the flotation process
should lift the recovery rate to its feasibility study level, Randgold
Resources chief executive Mark Bristow said here today.  He was
speaking at a quarterly media briefing coinciding with a mine visit by
international investors.

Bristow said while Tongon had increased production, its recovery rate,
while slowly improving, was still struggling to break 80% for the
year.  An additional 2% was achievable by optimising the existing
recovery circuit, but raising the recovery rate to the targeted upper
80s will require an expansion of the flotation process to capture most
of the sulphide in the ore.  Initial estimates of the cost to expand
the float circuit amount to US$12 million.  It is targeted for
completion by the end of 2014 with a forecast payback period of eight
to ten months."The standard CIL circuit is not recovering that portion of
the gold
associated with arsenopyrite which is bypassing the existing flash
flotation cells.  The original metallurgical testwork indicated that
the bulk of the Tongon ore was amenable to cyanidation, with flash
flotation in the mill circuit recovering the gold associated with the
sulphides.  In practice, however, we've seen that this process is not
recovering enough of the fine gold associated with arsenopyrite.  The
expansion of the flotation circuit will address this issue by capturing
the full spectrum of sulphides," he said.

In the meantime, Tongon is forecasting production of approximately 260
000 ounces for 2014, which is an increase on 2013's gold output but
slightly behind the internal target.

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the associated PDF document.

 http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/5286Y_1-2014-1-27.pdf 




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