Media releases

DRDGOLD granted prospecting rights for two new major projects

Details

Published: Thursday, 23 February 2006 02:00

DRDGOLD SA announced today that it has been granted prospecting rights under the new Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act in respect of the Sallies and Argonaut lease areas.
Johannesburg, South Africa. 23 February, 2006. DRDGOLD Limited (JSE: DRD; NASDAQ: DROOY; ASX: DRD; POM SoX: DRD) DRDGOLD South African Operations (Pty) Limited (DRDGOLD SA) announced today that it has been granted prospecting rights under the new Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act in respect of the Sallies and Argonaut lease areas.

Taken together, the two projects have the potential to increase the company’s South African resource base by 11 million ounces (oz).

Sallies

The prospecting site within the Sallies lease area, adjacent to ERPM, is located in the Brakpan/Boksburg area, east of Johannesburg. ERPM mine has a current planned five-year life which, if the current good grades experienced at ERPM continue in the present lease and extended prospecting areas, could be extended to 21 years.

The prospecting right has been granted over a period of four years, from January 2006 to January 2010.

Prospecting will take place underground, at depths of some 3 000 metres (m), covering an area of approximately 1 252 hectares. As no surface drilling will be carried out, there will be no detrimental impact to the ground and surface environment. The in situ gold resource, at 7.5 grams per tonne (g/t), will equate to approximately 2.4 million oz (75 336 kilograms) of gold from this project.

Development is expected to cost some R7.1 million over three years.

“To comply with the law, prospecting must begin within 120 days of the effective date of 14 January 2006, on which date the Environmental Management Plan was authorised and accepted,” said Acting DRDGOLD SA Chief Executive Officer Niel Pretorius. “We are currently completing the procedures for registering the mining right in the Mineral and Petroleum Titles Registration Office.”

Argonaut

The Argonaut project encompasses the southern down-dip extension of the Central Witwatersrand Goldfield, previously mined to a depth of between 1 800 m and 2 500 m.

Its focus is the exploitation of the potential resource striking 30 kilometres (km) from ERPM in the east to Durban Roodepoort Deep Mine in the west, at depths of between approximately 2 800 m and 5 000 m below surface. The project has also been the focus of research on the part of the gold mining industry’s collaborative Deep Mine programme, to investigate the required technologies to mine safely and profitably at depths up to 5 000 m.

The area of the prospecting and eventual mining right covers some 969 ha. The estimated resource, at anticipated grades of 8.5 g/t, could yield some 8.9 million ounces (280 000 kg) of gold over the life of the mine.

The prospecting right has been granted for a period of five years with effect from 6 February 2006. Prospecting will be carried out on surface by a borehole and borehole deflections, and an environmental impact study has been completed and accepted. “Assuming positive results from the assay figures of the borehole, we will extend our prospecting right into adjacent mineral right areas previously held by the company,” Pretorius said.

Note to editors:

East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM) has been mined since 1893. The mine was purchased by Crown Gold Recoveries (CGR) in October 2002. DRDGOLD South African Operations (Pty) Limited has a 100% holding in CGR, which in turn has a 100% holding in ERPM. ERPM currently employs some 2,700 people.

Queries:

South Africa
Investor and Media Relations
Ilja Graulich, DRDGOLD
+27 11 219 8707(office)
+27 83 604 0820 (mobile)

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

North America
Investor and Media Relations
Barbara Cano, Breakstone Group International
+1 646 452 2334 (office)

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 Services
+44 20 7499 3916 (office)
+44 779 863 4398

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DRDGOLD is an intermediate unhedged gold producer with mines in South Africa as well as Australasia. The company’s production profile is split equally between its highly leveraged SA operations and its low-cost, cash generative offshore mines.

DRDGOLD has primary listings on the Johannesburg (JSE:DRD) and Australian (ASX:DRD) stock exchanges and secondary listings on NASDAQ (DROOY), the London and Port Moresby stock exchanges 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.drdgold.com

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Disclaimer:
Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, among others, adverse changes or uncertainties in general economic conditions in the markets we serve, a drop in the gold price, a continuing strengthening of the rand against the dollar, regulatory developments adverse to DRDGOLD or difficulties in maintaining necessary licences or other governmental approvals, changes in DRDGOLD's competitive position, changes in business strategy, any major disruption in production at key facilities or adverse changes in foreign exchange rates and various other factors.

These risks include, without limitation, those described in the section entitled "Risk Factors" included in our annual report for the fiscal year ended 30 June 2005, which we filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on 15 December 2005 on Form 20-F. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this report or to the occurrence of unanticipated events.