Gold producer Randgold Resources has completed a rescoping exercise to update the prefeasibility study on the company's Tongon project, in Cote d'Ivoire and has indicated a greater resource than initially inferred.

This 41% increase to 4,39-million ounces will support a larger operation than initially envisaged, and the plant's design throughput is being increased from 200 000 t/m to 300 000 t/m. The emphasis for the project is now to complete the bankable feasibility study.

Randgold CEO Mark Bristow stated that the company had added further significant brownfield elements on the exploration front, particularly around Loulo, in Mali, and Tongon. Although greenfield exploration projects had traditionally driven the company's organic growth and received constant commitment and growth, brownfield operations were viewed as offering a certain amount of stability at current gold prices.

The company was actively exploring across an area of 1 200 km2 in one of the continents most prospective gold districts - West Africa. Bristow added that the company is interested in the bigger undeveloped assets in West Africa, "of which there are still a few".

The company is prospecting in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and in East Africa in Tanzania.

Randgold viewed Cote d'Ivoire as one of the best prospects, and has strategic ground holding in the country. It is felt that the area is under explored, with the added benefit of being a significantly more cost-effective place to work than Mali. Bristow said that Ghana was also a good country for new prospects, where a lot of licences would be up for review.

Bristow stated that Randgold would pursue corporate and acquisition opportunities provided they outranked its own organic growth prospects. "Exploration is the engine that drives our future," he concluded.

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