Media releases

No underground drilling and blasting at ERPM’s Far East Vertical Shaft currently

Details

Published: Monday, 03 November 2008 02:00

Johannesburg, South Africa, 3 November, 2008. DRDGOLD Limited (JSE: DRD; NASDAQ: DROO) announced today that no drilling and blasting is taking place currently at the ERPM gold mine of its 74%-held subsidiary, DRDGOLD South African Operations (Pty) Limited (DRDGOLD SA), at Boksburg on South Africa’s East Rand.

On 23 October 2008, DRDGOLD announced that it could become necessary to halt underground drilling and blasting as a consequence of the cessation of pumping of Central Witwatersrand Basin water from ERPM’s South West Vertical (SWV) Shaft on 6 October 2008. Pumping was ceased for safety reasons, following the asphyxiation of two employees underground at the SWV Shaft on 19 September.

DRDGOLD CEO-Designate Niel Pretorius said today: “The underground pumping infrastructure at ERPM’s South East Vertical (SEV) Shaft is currently unable to cope with both the rising level of water in the Central Witwatersrand Basin and water generated from ice supplied underground from surface to the mine’s only producing shaft, the Far East Vertical (FEV) Shaft, on a daily basis to cool the working places.

“Currently, therefore, we are unable to supply ice underground to adequately cool the working areas and are thus unable to send production crews underground. We have therefore halted all drilling and blasting operations at ERPM.

“We continue to engage with all stakeholders – notably government and unions – in discussions regarding these circumstances and how best to manage them.”

Avenues of investigation include the installation of additional pumping capacity at the FEV Shaft but initial indications are that this would be costly and would take several months to implement, Pretorius said.

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)

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.