DRDGOLD Limited

Mining

0.0
(0 Reviews)
101 Barclay Street, 10286 New York

Info

DRDGOLD Limited is a South African-based gold producer with operations and exploration activities in South Africa, held through a 74% interest in DRDGOLD South African Operations (Pty) Limited (DRDGOLD SA), and in Papua New Guinea, held through a 78.9% stake in Emperor Mines Limited (Emperor). The group is involved in all facets of gold mining: from exploration and the operation of deep-level and opencast mines, to the re-treatment of surface material and the extraction, processing and smelting of ore. A major repositioning of DRDGOLD in 2006-07 has seen the company taking a different approach to its portfolios on the two continents. In South Africa, the concentration has been on stabilising and developing existing assets as well as actively seeking new opportunities. In Australasia, where operational difficulties have had a negative effect on DRDGOLD's bottom line, Emperor has divested itself of two investments. In South Africa, DRDGOLD's empowerment partner, Khumo Gold SPV (Pty) Limited, has recently increased its holding in DRDGOLD SA from 15% to 20% and facilitated the incorporation of a further 6% into an employee trust. This means that DRDGOLD has met the South African Mining Charter's black economic empowerment equity target of 26% by 2014, seven years ahead of schedule. DRDGOLD SA owns and operates the Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mining Company Limited (Blyvoor), the gold mining operations of East Rand Proprietary Mines Limited (ERPM) and Crown Gold Recoveries (Pty) Limited (Crown), the world's largest operation recovering gold from disused mine dumps. This aspect of DRDGOLD's business is set to grow. During the year under review a 50:50 joint venture was formed between DRDGOLD SA and Mintails SA (Pty) Limited (Mintails SA) which acquired from AngloGold Ashanti 15 million ounces (Moz) of gold-bearing tailings material and some infrastructure from Ergo, its discontinued surface reclamation operation on the East Rand goldfield of the Witwatersrand Basin. The joint venture will be managed by Crown. There have also been recent important developments in terms of looking for new ounces in South Africa. The first concerns ERPM where the Department of Minerals and Energy has granted the application for a prospecting right over the second portion of the neighbouring Sallies lease area. To be known as ERPM Extension 2, the area is 5 500 hectares in extent and has an exploration target of 7 to 11 Moz. The second development was the announcement that DRDGOLD and Mintails SA have reached agreement on the formation of a second joint venture - to explore, evaluate and potentially mine gold and uranium by opencast and underground mining methods in the West Rand goldfield. The goal of the joint venture in which the companies will each hold 45% with Mineral and Mining Reclamation Services (Pty) Limited holding the balance, is to re-start mining in this part of the Witwatersrand Basin. During 2006-07 Emperor sold the Vatukoula gold mine in Fiji and its 20% holding in the Porgera Joint Venture in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The assets that remain in Australasia are the wholly owned Tolukuma gold mine in PNG and extensive copper-gold exploration tenements in that country. In the 2007 financial year, DRDGOLD's attributable production fell to 477 157 ounces (FY06: 527 401 ounces), 334 496 from DRDGOLD SA. At 30 June 2007, DRDGOLD's total attributable resource base was 54.2Moz and its total attributable reserves were 6.3Moz. Some 53.9Moz of attributable resources were in South Africa where an increase of 33% was recorded compared with FY06 when the resource base was 40.6Moz. With regard to attributable reserves, 6.2Moz, or 98%, were in South Africa and the balance in Australasia. DRDGOLD's primary listing (DRD) is on the Johannesburg stock exchange, the JSE Limited, and it has a secondary listing (DROOY) on the Nasdaq Capital Market.

Industries / Specializations

Mining

Map

101 Barclay Street, 10286 New York

Reviews

Unverified Reviews
0.0
(0 Reviews)