Randgold Resources' Tongon mine in Ivory Coast will produce 23.3 percent less gold in 2018 than originally forecast as a result of 53 days of strike action that took place earlier this year, Chief Executive Mark Bristow said.
"The strike made us lose 70,000 ounces of gold (on the 300,000 ounces 2018 forecast)," Bristow said. "The production forecast has been revised to 230,000 ounces of gold for this year."
Bristow also said the Tongon gold mine, originally expected to close in 2021, will close at least two years later than planned because of a new deposit discovered around the mine. Exploration is continuing.
The mine produced about 289,000 ounces of gold in 2017.
(By Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Juliette Jabkhiro and David Evans)