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Jo'burg landmark will be mined Posted: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 [miningmx.com] -- AS soon as DRDGold gets the go ahead from the Department of Minerals and Energy it plans to start recovering gold from the Top Star dump in downtown Johannesburg, the company said today. "At Crown, now that the Gauteng Provincial Heritage Resources Authority has dropped its opposition to the recovery of the Top Star dump, we are ready to begin work almost as soon as a positive response from the DME to our application for a mining licence is received," John Sayers CEO of DRDGold said. DRDGold, which in the last year has sold its overseas assets to focus on its three South African operations, the Blyvoor and ERPM mines and its Crown recovery operations, reported net earnings of R84.5 million in the three months to the end of December down from R964.1 million in the previous quarter. Earnings, though, improved year on year with a loss of R921.5 million recorded in the same quarter in 2006. Looking forward the company said it expects to start production from Blyvoor's "Way Ahead" ore replacement project during the September quarter this year and exploration drilling to evaluate the south-west, down-dip extension of the Blyvoor orebody south of the Boulder Dyke is already under way. DRDGold is looking to replace ounces and said the Department of Minerals had approved overstoping of the exploration development into Extension 1 at its ERPM mine. This means it can upgrade its resource from indicated status to probable resource for the June 2008 annual ore reserve declaration. The company saw production at its South African operations fall 13% in the December quarter to 77 259 ounces compared to the same quarter last year. It attributed this, in the main, to the loss of production at its Blyvoor mine in October after the department of minerals instructed it to stop operations after two fatal accidents. "While we remain firmly of the view that the Safety Inspectorate's seven-day stoppage at Blyvoor was unnecessary, it is pleasing to report that the parties are now addressing their mutual concern about mine safety in a more constructive and pragmatic manner," Sayers said. Revenue for the quarter was 4% lower at R416.9 million as a result of the lower gold production. In the quarter to the end of December DRDGold's South African cash operating cost rose to $703/oz (R153 690/kg) compared to $505/oz (119 388/kg) in the same quarter last year. It received a gold price in the three months of $797/oz (R173 606/oz) compared to $617/oz (n R145 909/kg) in the December quarter in 2006. DRDGold did not say how it had been impacted by the Eskom power shortages but Sayers commented: "We believe the most constructive course of action is for Government, Eskom and key, major consumers such as ourselves to continue to co-operate in both finding and applying workable solutions to the power dilemma."
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