Randgold CEO says gold rise due to fundamentals

* Says gold rise not due to Barrick gold purchases

* High gold price will lead to higher costs (In U.S. dollars)

TORONTO, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The chief executive of Randgold (RRS.L), a mid-tier gold miner focused on West Africa, says gold's recent rise through $1,000 an ounce is due to fundamentals such as dwindling mine supply, and not gold purchases by Barrick Gold (ABX.TO) to cover hedge positions.

"There's lots of speculation at the moment what's pushing it or what's holding it there. My belief is its fundamental drivers," Randgold CEO Mark Bristow told Reuters on the sidelines of the MineAfrica conference in Toronto.

Last week, Canada's Barrick, the world's biggest gold miner, said it would spend about $3 billion to buy back all of its fixed-price gold hedges -- gold it had forward sold years earlier at a fixed lower price -- as well as some of its floating price hedges.

Barrick said it has already bought 2.4 million ounces of gold since the beginning of July as part of the program, which some analysts have speculated is the main reason gold has pushed to its recent near-record levels.

The metal XAU= was at $1,009 an ounce on Friday, and has for the most part stayed above the $1,000 mark for the past week.

Gold's ability to stay above the key level has raised expectations it could push definitively through $1,000 and challenge the record of $1,030.80 set in March 2008.

Bristow cautioned against reading the price rise too positively in terms of the impact on gold miner profits, noting that strong gold usually means a weaker U.S. dollar, which in turn raises non-U.S. dollar costs, particularly for companies active outside the United States.

A weaker U.S. dollar also boosts the price of oil, which has a big impact on costs.

"The big problem in the industry is when the gold price runs it takes a while for the costs to catch up," he said.

"If you run numbers at spot gold price and you don't look at the relative costs, you create an artificial margin that will destroy you." (Reporting by Cameron French; editing by Peter Galloway)