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DRDGOLD comes home amid R1.3bn Oz loss Posted: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 [miningmx.com] -- DRDGOLD said it would focus its efforts mining gold in Africa in the wake of an extraordinary R1.2bn group loss in the 2007 financial year ended-June, most of it sustained through its 78.7% owned Australian subsidiary, Emperor Mines Ltd. The closure of Emperor Mines’ Vatakoula mine in Papua New Guinea, which included an impairment of R807m, totally rubbed out a profit of R55m from DRDGOLD’s South African mines in the year. The outcome was that Emperor Mines lost a total sum of R1.34bn leaving the DRDGOLD group with a net loss of R1.2bn for the 2007 financial year. This was despite DRDGOLD receiving 21% more for its gold sales during the year. John Sayers, who was appointed CEO of DRDGOLD last year after Mark Wellesley-Wood’s contract was not renewed, said the group would focus on its South African mines Blyvoor and ERPM as well as Crown Recoveries which extracts gold from mine dumps. “Notwithstanding various setbacks previously reported, the South African operations are starting to show signs of responsiveness to the stabilisation strategy being applied,” Sayers said in a statement. He also drew positives from the group’s cash position which had doubled year-on-year to R947m as of June 30. This followed the sale of DRDGOLD’s one fifth stake in the Porgera joint venture to Barrick Gold. Vatakoula was closed and sold for no profit on condition the buyer, an Australian firm, Westech, assumed rehabilitation charges. In addition to improving Blyvoor and ERPM, Sayers said DRDGOLD hoped to add production from two joint ventures with Mintails SA. The joint ventures are to mine gold and uranium from DRDGOLD’s underground and surface deposits on the west Rand and the east Rand respectively. Click Here to subscribe to our daily newsletter
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