LOULO (GARA MINE)

Randgold reported that a total of 1 212 metres of development was completed and 101 922 tonnes of ore at a grade of 5.37g/t was hauled to surface at Luolo mine. The development was up on the 1 145 metres achieved during the fourth quarter of 2008 and the Yalea twin declines have now been advanced to a distance of 1 255 metres at a vertical depth of 200 metres from surface. Crushers on the 28 and 12 Levels are operational while ore and waste are now transported to surface via conveyors.

The Yalea declines had been advanced to a distance of 1 150 metres from surface and a vertical depth of 180 metres. Overall development has been slower than expected, with the section suffering from low availabilities of the underground fleet during the third and fourth quarters, as previously explained. Total development for the underground mine was 4 479 metres. Following extensive discussion with our sub contractors and suppliers, together we have agreed a number of remedial action steps to address the issues identified including increasing the number of loaders, increasing the quantity of spare parts maintained on site, adding additional mechanics and ordering larger loaders.

The focus has been on developing the 28 and 12 Level strike drives as well as establishing the first longhole stoping face between these levels. This critical development will serve as the main access and drawpoint level for the section's mining area during 2009. Enhancement work on the twin declines, construction work on the permanent water handling system and the concrete tunnels inside the boxcut continued during the quarter. Both concrete tunnels were completed and conveyor installation commenced, with the underground belt having been installed and now operational. It is expected that the overland conveyor will be completed early in 2009. In the southern part of the Loulo mining permit at Gounkoto, results from a new trench have returned 35.75 metres at 10.66g/t including 21.20 metres at 16.47g/t, the mineralisation is hosted in strongly altered pink quartzite and breccia. This confirms results from trench FRT03: 9.70 metres at 15.26g/t excavated 1 kilometre to the NNW. Together with rock chip sampling, pitting and previous RAB drilling, mineralisation has so far been defined over a combined strike length of 1.3 kilometres; open in all directions. The current interpretation for Gounkoto is that a major NNW structure is the main mineralised target; however both N-S and NE-SW structures play an important role in creating dilation and subsequent gold mineralisation. At Toronto (named after the nearby village: Torondinloto) RAB drilling, trenching and sampling of artisanal workings have so far delineated a 1 kilometre long mineralised structure. The structural trend is NNW and regionally coincides with the structure which hosts Faraba. Gold mineralisation is associated with altered pink quartzite and breccia, similar to Gounkoto. A 6 000 metre RAB drilling programme has started to further test both of these targets prior to reconnaissance diamond drilling in 2009.