Shares of Randgold Resources Ltd., a top gold mining company focused on West Africa, soared Wednesday as rising production and prices combined to boost its third-quarter income four-fold.

Income jumped to $106.78 million in the third quarter, or $1.17 per share, compared to $23.57 million, or 26 cents per share, in the year-earlier period, said the company, a pure-gold producer based in Helier, Channel Islands.

On an adjusted basis, profit rose to $122.87 million from $28.16 million in the year-earlier period.

Gold sales shot up to $309.61 million from $116.3 million on higher gold prices and an 80 percent production increase to 182,360 ounces from 101,468 ounces in the comparable 2010 quarter.

Gold sales for the quarter decreased by 4% from Q2, when ?gures were in?ated by the sale of 31,646 ounces on hand at Tongon, which could not be sold in the first quarter because of instability in the Ivory Coast at the time.

Gold sales for the current quarter therefore rose 13 percent compared to the adjusted sales in the previous quarter.

Shares jumped $4.71, or 4.3 percent, to $114.99 in premarket action. The stock's 52-week high is $115.

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