Media releases

DRDGOLD’s Ergo edges closer to 50% throughput increase

Details

Published: Thursday, 27 October 2011 02:00

DRDGOLD announced today that it has commissioned 44 kilometres of its 50-kilometre Crown/Ergo pipeline project, successfully linking Crown’s City Deep plant south of Johannesburg with the Elsburg tailings complex pump station at Boksburg, and thus with Ergo’s Brakpan retreatment plant

Johannesburg, South Africa. 27 October 2011. DRDGOLD Limited (DRDGOLD; JSE: DRD, NASDAQ: DROOY) announced today that it has commissioned 44 kilometres of its 50-kilometre Crown/Ergo pipeline project, successfully linking Crown’s City Deep plant south of Johannesburg with the Elsburg tailings complex pump station at Boksburg, and thus with Ergo’s Brakpan retreatment plant.

The link means that slimes recovered from the newly commissioned 3L42 slimes dam south of Johannesburg can be pumped to the Brakpan plant, via the City Deep plant for retreatment, and the waste after gold extraction can be deposited on Ergo’s Brakpan tailings deposition site.

The 3L42 slimes dam contains some 11,572 million tonnes (Mt) of slimes with an average grade of 0,377 grams per ton (g/t). It is estimated that the reclamation of 3L42 will take some 42 months, yielding some 75,747 ounces (oz) of gold worth about R994,2 million at current gold price levels.

The next milestone for DRDGOLD’s Ergo and Crown surface retreatment operations ” now consolidated under Ergo ” will be completion and commissioning of the second carbon-in-leach circuit of Ergo’s Brakpan plant during October 2011. This will increase the plant’s retreatment capacity by 50%, from 1.2Mt per month (Mtpm) to 1.8Mtpm.

By year-end, the full 50 kilometres of the Crown/Ergo pipeline is expected to be completed, at which point sand from the newly-commissioned 3A2 site, currently being retreated at the Crown plant, will report ” via the Crown plant ” to the Brakpan plant for retreatment. 3A2 contains some 11,076 Mt of sand with an average grade of 0,504g/t. It is estimated it will take some 56 months to reclaim all of the 3A2 material, yielding an estimated 98,703 oz of gold.

Material from Ergo’s Elsburg tailings complex, 3L42 and 3A2 ” all reporting to the Brakpan plant ” is expected to take the plant to its full 1.8Mt capacity from early in 2012. Work to increase the capacity of the Brakpan tailings deposition site by a further 150 million tonnes is planned for completion in the first quarter of calendar 2012.

The total capital cost of the 50km pipeline, the second CIL circuit and the capacity increase at the Brakpan tailings deposition site is R340,0 million. Partially funded by the DMTN programme, the suite of inter-linked projects is on time and within budget.

Queries:

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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 included in this document, including, among others, adverse changes or uncertainties in general economic conditions in the markets we serve, a drop in the gold price, a sustained strengthening of the Rand against the Dollar, regulatory developments adverse to DRDGOLD or difficulties in maintaining necessary licenses 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 2010, which we filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on 29 October 2010 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.