Bottom Line: Less than glittering results even for a firm prepared for a gold price fall
LUCKY for Randgold that it built its business model to deliver returns even if the yellow metal’s price dived. Its reserves were calculated at $1,000/oz and so haven’t had to be written down even as the price fell this year from around $1,700/oz to near $1,300/oz.
That said, these numbers are not glittering. Profit before tax is down 29 per cent on the last quarter. Not losing money isn’t the same as maintaining the profits made with gold prices at their recent peak.
Gold has seen a slight summer rebound but unless central banks cooperate with even more money printing its shine seems likely to remain dimmed for some time.