JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – LSE- and Nasdaq-listed Randgold Resources (Randgold) on Monday reported a 79% increase in net profit to $84,3-million in the year ended December 31, 2009, compared with a net profit of $47-million the year before.

Attributable gold output rose 14% to 488 255 oz for the year, compared with the 428 426 oz of gold produced the year before.

The improved output was mainly as a result of a strong fourth-quarter performance at its 80%-owned Loulo operation, in Mali, which produced 106 564 oz in the final three months of the year.

The operation’s full-year output increased by 36% to 351 591 oz of gold, compared with the 258 095 oz produced in 2008.

Further, the company noted that its 40%-owned Morila joint-venture gold mine, in Mali, had been successfully converted to a stockpile retreatment operation and had produced 341 661 oz gold during the year.

CEO Mark Bristow commented in a statement to shareholders that the year had been a challenging one, as the team had to meet ambitious production targets, while simultaneously expanding its Loulo operation and progressing other African projects.

“The team rose to the challenge and, as our results show, we did very well in every sphere of the business, once again creating real value for all our stakeholders,” he said.

Randgold reported on Monday that it had moved the target date for first production at its Kibali project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), ahead to January 2014.

The London-listed gold-miner, which owned 45% of the project, would manage the project, where the indicated resource has been upgraded to 13,93-million ounces and the reserves increased to 67% to 9,2-million ounces.

The miner would, in the near term, focus on environmental and social impact baseline studies and the improvement of the development schedule of the project.

Randgold and AngloGold Ashanti, which also owned a 45% stake in the project, had acquired the Kibali project when they joined forces to acquire Moto Goldmines for $488-million in 2009.

The government of the DRC held the remaining 10% stake in the project.

Together with the updated Kibali and Massawa reserves, the group’s attributable reserves increased by 60% since the end of 2008.

A prefeasibility study on the Massawa project, in Senegal, had been completed, delivering reserves of 1,5-million ounces of gold, the company stated.

The project would now progress to feasibility stage, with full environmental and social assessments to be undertaken.

Further, Randgold reported that the feasibility studies for its Gounkoto project, situated near its Loulo operation, would be completed during the first quarter of this year.

The company was also aiming to start geotechnical and metallurgical sample drilling, acid generation and leach tests of waste and ore, density test work, geohydrological drilling and ground water modelling, during the first quarter.

The development of Randgold’s Tongon project, in the Côte d'Ivoire remained on track for production to start in the fourth quarter of this year.