Media releases

DRD to seek Papua New Guinea listing

Details

Published: Monday, 10 May 2004 02:00

DRD, one of Papua New Guinea’s leading gold miners, today announced its intention to seek a listing on the country’s Port Moresby Stock Exchange.
Johannesburg, South Africa. Monday, 10 May 2004. Durban Roodepoort Deep Limited, (JSE: DUR; NASDAQ: DROOY; ASX: DRD)), one of Papua New Guinea’s leading gold miners, today announced its intention to seek a listing on the country’s Port Moresby Stock Exchange.

South African-based DRD has owned and operated the Tolukuma Gold Mine in PNG since 2000 and recently acquired the Oil Search interest in the Porgera Gold Mine Joint Venture.

Annual production from the company’s PNG gold mining interests has risen to 300 000 ounces a year. In the last quarter, just under one third of the company’s total gold production of 240 758 ounces came from its PNG operations, at the lowest cost within the DRD group.

“This growth, we believe, makes it imperative for us to give all PNG residents an opportunity to invest in our company, and so, in one of the country’s fastest growing natural resources-based industries,” said DRD Executive Chairman Mark Wellesley-Wood.

“A Port Moresby Stock Exchange listing for DRD gives potential PNG investors in our company the simplest, most straight-forward and equitable means of doing so.

“We encourage stakeholder participation along the lines of empowerment deals being promulgated in South Africa. We have some PNG shareholders already and some of our local employees have share options in the company.”

A key attraction for investors in DRD worldwide, Wellesley-Wood said, was the liquidity of the company’s stock.

“Ours is the most heavily traded gold stock in the world; about five times DRD’s capital has traded over the past year, with over four million shares trading every day on average across eight international exchanges.”

Elaborating on DRD’s commitment to the future of PNG’s mining industry, Wellesley-Wood said the company was the largest holder of exploration tenements in the country, and will be seeking development partners to assist in bringing several of these promising targets into production.

Further, in terms of its current mining operations, DRD had applied to good effect its experience of turning around deep-level South African gold mines at Tolukuma.

“When we took over four years ago, the mine had less than two years of life left; since then we have extended this to beyond 2008 and grown production to 85 000 ounces a year. We have increased employment opportunities and contributed substantially to improvements in community infrastructure.

“At Porgera, we believe there is considerable potential to extend the life of mine beyond the current five years,” Wellesley-Wood said.

Queries:

South Africa
Investor and Media Relations
Ilja Graulich, Durban Roodepoort Deep, Limited
+27 11 381 7826 (office)
+27 83 604 0820 (mobile)

James Duncan, Russell & Associates
+27 11 880 3924 (office)
+27 82 892 8052 (mobile)

North America
Investor Relations
Susan Borinelli, Breakstone & Ruth International
+1 646-536-7018 (office)
+1 917-570-8421 (mobile)

Media Relations
Jessica Anderson, Breakstone & Ruth International
+1 646-536-7002 (office)
+1 347-423-5859 (mobile)

Australasia
Investor and Media Relations
Paul Downie, Porter Novelli
+61 893 861 233 (office)
+61 414 947 129 (mobile)

United Kingdom/Europe
Investor and Media Relations
Phil Dexter, St James's Corporate
+44 20 7499 3916 (office)
+44 779 863 4398

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DRD is the world’s 9th largest gold producer, with mines in South Africa as well as Australasia, a key target for growth. The company has a track record of success in extending the lives of older mines safely and profitably. For fiscal year 2003, DRD produced 870 000 ounces of gold, up from under 100 000 ounces a year in 1997, when current operations were amalgamated.

DRD has primary listings on the Johannesburg (JSE:DRD) and Australian (ASX:DRD) stock exchanges and secondary listings on NASDAQ (DROOY), the London Stock Exchange and the Paris and Brussels Bourses. Its shares are also traded on the regulated unofficial market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the Berlin OTC Market.

For more information, please visit www.drd.co.za or www.durbans.com

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Some of the information in this media release may contain projections or other forward looking statements regarding future events or other future financial performance. We wish to caution you that these statements are only projections and those actual events or results may differ materially. In reviewing, please refer to the documents that we file from time to time with the SEC, specifically to our annual report on Form 20-F. These documents contain and identify important factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward looking statements, including such risks as difficulties in being a marginal producer of gold, changes and reliability of ore reserve estimates, gold price volatility, currency fluctuations, problems in the integration of operations,exploration and mining risks and a variety of risks described in our annual report on Form 20-F. We undertake no obligation to publicly release results of any of these forward looking statements which may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unexpected results.

Cautionary note to US investors: the United States Securities and Exchange Commission permits mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. We use the term "resources" (which includes "measured", "indicated", and "inferred") in our media releases, which the SEC guidelines strictly prohibit us from including in our filing with the SEC. US investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No. 0-28800, available from us at 45 Empire Road, Parktown, Johannesburg, 2193, South Africa. You can also obtain this form from the SEC website at https://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml

This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to purchase any of the DRD securities described herein, which offer or solicitation shall be made only pursuant to the offer contained in the Bidders Statement. The offer of DRD securities described herein will be made within the United States pursuant to applicable exemptions from the registration requirements of the United States securities laws. The DRD shares issued under this offer have not been registered under the US Securities Act and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to US persons unless they are registered under the US Securities Act or an exemption from the registration requirements under that Act is available.