Second-quarter fillip for Randgold

Production jumped 27 per cent to 210,534 ounces during the second quarter, which fed through to a 41 per cent rise in first-half net profits of $246m (£157m). Unit cash costs for the full six-month period were up by 6 per cent to $723 an ounce, but Randgold shareholders can take encouragement from the fact that this measure dropped by 6 per cent to $703 an ounce between March and June.

Over the first quarter of this year, Randgold continued to experience problems at its Tongon mine in the Ivory Coast, which meant that comparative first-half production fell by 23 per cent to 103,573 ounces. And while improvements in ore grades and levels of mill throughput at Tongon reversed the decline in the three months to the end of June, quarterly gold production is still 37 per cent adrift of where it was in 2011.

Randgold will need to maintain the overall production growth rate it achieved during the second quarter in order to meet full-year guidance. It has managed to keep a lid on costs during the second quarter, primarily as a result of higher grades and increased production, although it's worth remembering that production has previously been stymied by the rainy season in Mali, which is currently under way.

The security situation in Mali has also provided anxieties for Randgold - or at least its investors - in recent months, but Randgold's phlegmatic chief executive, Mark Bristow, told us that security risk "is not dependent on where you are in Africa, but on how you manage it". Certainly, until now, Randgold has avoided any disruptions to its operations, but it remains an overt risk factor.

Investec anticipates 2012 EPS of 499.8¢ (418.7¢ in 2011)