DRDGOLD benefited from a 40% increase in the average gold price in its 2026 financial year, helping operating profit jump 83% even as the company invested R3.5bn in expansion projects.
“This was a year of delivery,” CEO Niël Pretorius said in a statement before the results release. “We maintained production while investing at a level that is fundamentally reshaping the business, and we did that while remaining debt-free and continuing to return value to shareholders.”
DRDGOLD’s headline earnings rose 89% to R4.3bn for the year, while operating profit increased 83% to R6.5bn. Revenue climbed 42% to R11.2bn.
The miner ended the year with R2.8bn in cash and no debt, and declared a final dividend of 120c a share.
The company could take full advantage of the 40%-rise in the average rand gold price, which “hugely bolstered” the results, Pretorius said.
He added that the company was now starting to see the benefits of the billions of rand it has spent expanding the business.
“The infrastructure we have been building is starting to come online and the next phase of DRDGold is beginning to take shape,” he said.
Gold production was 4,839kg, slightly higher than the previous year and above the company’s forecast for the year.
The company generated R2.3bn in free cash flow – up 85%, even as it spent R3.5bn on expansion and other capital projects. It also paid R779.3m in dividends during the year.
The miner said much of its investment is going into its Vision 2028 programme, an approximately R10bn plan to increase the amount of material processed at its ERGO and Far West Gold Recoveries (FWGR) operations.
In addition, it aims to inrease annual gold production towards six tonnes by 2028 and extend the operating life of FWGR.
More than R5bn has already been invested in the programme.
New projects
Several of those projects moved from construction towards operation during the year.
At ERGO, the new Daggafontein tailings storage facility received its first water in June and its first tailings in July.
At FWGR, an expanded section of the DP2 processing plant was commissioned in July and produced its first gold on the same day.
A new regional tailings storage facility was about 67% complete at the end of the financial year, while the pipeline connecting the DP2 plant, the new storage facility and the Libanon site was about 95% complete.
DRDGold also received approval in July for the water-use licence needed for a pump station at Libanon, allowing construction to go ahead.
Once the DP2 expansion and the new tailings storage facility are ready, Libanon is planned to initially add 600,000 tons a month of material for FWGR to process. This is expected to eventually increase to 1.2m tons a month.
“There is still significant work ahead, but the building blocks are increasingly in place. Our focus now is on bringing these projects into operation safely and efficiently and converting that investment into sustainable production and cash flow,” Pretorius said.
