[miningmx] — GOLD One International and Goliath Gold’s acquisition of the majority
of Pamodzi Gold’s East Rand assets did not include the historic tailings dams of the
properties.
Neal Froneman, CEO of both Gold One and Goliath Gold, told Miningmx the
dams were of no strategic interest to them.
Buying these dumps would’ve necessarily entailed acquiring the associated
environmental liability; an issue that Froneman was keen to avoid in the way the deal
for the remainder of the assets was structured.
Spokesman for Pamodzi Gold’s team of liquidators, Johan Engelbrecht, told
Miningmx they were in negotiations with various parties over the dumps.
“There are still various assets that could be sold, but the dumps are the only one of
significance,’ he said.
A seemingly natural fit for these dumps would be DRDGOLD’s Ergo surface
operations. Ergo’s current focus is the retreatment of the Elsburg tailings
complex, and it owns the surface rights to access another 600 million
tonnes of surface tailings across the eastern, central and western Witwatersrand.
Asked per SMS whether DRDGOLD was in discussions with the liquidators over the
dumps, CEO Niel Pretorius replied:
“We were asked to look at it a while ago. [It] never got to the stage where we
would have had to make any sort of disclosure though.’
Pretorius is currently in Europe.
