DRDGold increased production by 4% quarter on quarter for quarter to end-March.
It produced 1,187 kilograms, despite a 7% drop in throughput to 5.896 million tonnes due to inclement weather and electricity supply interruptions.
Operating costs increased 7% to just over R80 a tonne. Cash and cash equivalents were R416m at the end of the quarter after a R51m dividend payout.
DRDGold also announced regulatory approval which will significantly increase Ergo’s life of mine and facilitate a sustainable deposition site for waste produced by the treatment of acid mine drainage.
It said the Department of Water and Sanitation’s approval of amendments to the Brakpan/Withok Tailings Deposition Facility to incorporate most of the Withok footprint was a key regulatory milestone.
This means Ergo Mining can increase deposition capacity to 800 million tonnes from 200 million. This, it said, is enough to receive most of the waste mine tailings in and around Johannesburg.
Ergo has resources of 10.8 million ounces of gold contained in mine waste, processed currently at 24 million tonnes a year.
The facility disposes of residues from the reprocessing of mine waste from Ergo’s clean-up and reclamation sites in east and west Johannesburg. It is also a disposal facility for the water treatment plant of the department’s Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority in Boksburg.
