Media releases

Impact of East Rand violence on ERPM

Details

Published: Thursday, 22 May 2008 02:00

Johannesburg, South Africa. 21 May 2008. DRDGOLD has been informed by the South African Police Service (SAPS) that two employees of its East Rand Proprietary Mines Limited mine (ERPM) at Boksburg died in the violence that occurred in the Ramaphosa informal settlement on the East Rand.

The names and nationalities of the employees will be withheld until such time as the next of kin have been informed.

Production at ERPM is still continuing. However, employee attendance has been negatively impacted since the weekend following violent attacks against foreigners in the area. ERPM has reported that approximately 58% of its day shift did not report for work today and that this was believed to be related to the continuing unrest in nearby communities. DRDGOLD’s two other operations have not been affected by the violence.

621, or 32.6%, of ERPM’s semi-skilled workforce are foreign nationals, mainly from Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland. The largest proportion, some 480 employees, or 77% of the foreign nationals on the workforce, are Mozambicans. Some 398 of these employees (83% of the Mozambican workforce), have opted for living-out allowances from the mine, in preference to hostel accommodation.

Management and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) officials met with representatives of the Mozambican workforce on Monday afternoon to discuss, amongst other matters, alternative accommodation. DRDGOLD is assisting affected employees of ERPM with temporary accommodation, food and security and has appealed to all employees who have sought refuge at police stations and elsewhere in the community to come forward for assistance.

Management also met with SAPS officials on Wednesday and SAPS has agreed to provide additional protective support to the foreign nationals on the ERPM workforce. No further reports of violence have been received by mine management on Wednesday night or today.

A meeting is scheduled for this afternoon with NUM officials, the Mozambique Consulate and employees of the mine, to attempt to resolve the current situation and return the mine to normality.

Queries:

South Africa

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)

United Kingdom/Europe

Investor and Media Relations

Phil Dexter, St James's Corporate Services
+44 20 7499 3916 (office)
+44 779 863 4398 (mobile)

For more information, please visit www.drdgold.com

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 2007, which we filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on 14 December 2007 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.