By Alex MacDonald

LONDON--West African gold producer Randgold Resources Ltd. (GOLD) has received assurances from the Ivory Coast government that the convention that defines its investment in the Tongon gold mine won't be altered as the government continues to debate the structure of its mining code, the company's Chief Executive Mark Bristow said Monday.

"The government has reassured that... they will respect these agreements," he told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. The Ivory Coast put forward a new draft of their mining code last year which introduced a mineral production sharing agreement, commonly used in the oil industry. The draft faced stiff opposition from the industry amid falling gold prices, which prompted the government to open discussions with stakeholders about the mining code amendments.

Mr. Bristow said that gold price slump combined with continuing uncertainty about the country's mining code has resulted in mining companies withdrawing from Ivory Coast or delaying or downsizing their projects there. But he noted that "I'm absolutely convinced that we will arrive at a very reasonable mining code" and added that his company continues to make investments in the country.

"The government has already made significant progress in restabilizing the country along with the other parties, and we are confident that the country will also weather the storm in the gold market if together we reinforce the partnership between capital, labor and the state and renew our mutual commitment to the long-term development of this industry," Mr. Bristow said.

He added that Rangold Resources continues to upgrade its Tongon operations and is stepping up its exploration activity in the Ivory Coast after recently receiving new exploration permits.

Nevertheless, some miners have signaled that they are facing tough times in the Ivory Coast, due in part to falling gold prices which have forced some to reassess the value of their projects.

Perseus Mining Ltd. (PRU.AU) said it has postponed the development of its Sissingue gold project in the Ivory Coast until it feels more confident about its ability to finance the project and generate an acceptable return on its investment in the wake of a lower gold price. While it said it continues to make positive progress with the Ivorian government in setting a mining convention for the project, Perseus previously said it would only commit further significant sums of capital to the project once the mining convention had been secured.

Australia-based Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM.AU) also said it expects to lower the value of its Ivory Coast Bonikro gold mine after announcing a potential writedown of $5 billion to $6 billion at its upcoming results due to falling gold prices. Meanwhile U.S.-based Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM) told the African Mining Intelligence last year that it was winding down its exploration activities in the Ivory Coast. The news agency said, without citing sources, that the reason for the pull-back was due to lack of prospects and inability to renew exploration licenses.

Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@wsj.com

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