Africa-focused gold-miner Randgold Resources has its eye on several potential targets, and expects to see even more opportunities over the coming months, as junior miners and explorers are battered by tough market conditions, CEO Mark Bristow said last week.

Randgold mines gold in Mali and is building a new operation in Côte d’Ivoire. It also has advanced prospects in Senegal.

“The big challenge is to find an asset that actually makes money,” Bristow told analysts in Toronto.

“There are very few assets in the gold space that actually make money, even now.”

Sliding commodity prices, coupled with lower share valuations across the board, mean that the market is looking more closely at whether assets are living up to promises made by companies, and exploration and development firms without the luxury of a steady cash flow are facing an uncertain future.

“Particularly the small ones, in Africa – you are going to see a major clean-out,” Bristow predicted.

“And that’s good for us.”

As a result, Randgold, which has a cool $264-million in the bank, is considering several options to grow its portfolio.

The company also hopes to use the difficulties that juniors are facing to widen its exploration efforts, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Tanzania and Cameroon – what Bristow calls “elephant country”.

On a broader scale, he said he had no immediate plans to venture outside Africa, but would consider buying assets in regions like South America as part of a “transformational” deal.

Notwithstanding any merger or acquisition activity, Randgold expects to lift attributable production levels to more than 600 000 oz/y by 2011, as it expands underground production at Loulo, in Mali, and starts up the new Tongon mine.

Randgold expects global gold production to decline by between 15% and 20% in the next three or four years, as unprofitable operations are squeezed out and difficult market conditions delay the development of new mines.

“And if we have some real failures, which I think we are going to have, it will be the upper end of the range,” Bristow said.

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