(Reuters) – Gold miner Randgold Resources Ltd (RRS.L) said its full-year profit from mining fell by 11 percent, as gold prices continued their decline.
Gold miners have been struggling as prices (XAU=) fell for the third straight year in 2015, hurt by the increasing strength of the dollar and the first rise in U.S. interest rates in nearly a decade.
Randgold, which mines gold in Mali, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo, said profit from mining for the year ended Dec. 31 fell to $ 572.2 million (394 million pounds), compared with $ 643.1 million a year earlier.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Andrew Breichmanas said in a note to clients that the results were “positive,” adding that the company’s results were ahead of their expectations.
The company also hiked its total dividend for the year by 10 percent to 66 cents per share.
(Reporting by Mamidipudi Soumithri in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)
