DRDGOLD, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s oldest company at 130 years old, is actively pursuing expansion opportunities across Africa, with CEO Niël Pretorius particularly keen on entering Zambia’s mining sector.
The company has been making overtures to major operators like Barrick Gold and AngloGold Ashanti, seeking partnerships to optimise tailings from their mature operations. “I would love to go outside South Africa after the assets to the north of us,” Pretorius said. “We are keen to get more copper and gold assets. We want to diversify and we are knocking on doors but, at this stage, we are not getting through the doors.”
Zambia represents an especially attractive target, with Pretorius highlighting the jurisdiction’s appeal and abundant tailings opportunities. “If an opportunity presents itself we would be interested. We would like to play there,” he said, though acknowledging that potential partners have yet to engage seriously with DRDGold’s proposals.
The company’s expansion ambitions are closely tied to its relationship with controlling shareholder Sibanye-Stillwater, which facilitated DRDGold’s current growth phase. The partnership enabled the Far West Gold Recoveries operation, treating dump material from former Driefontein, Kloof and Libanon mines after Sibanye contributed $80m for control—the largest single investment in DRDGold’s history.
“At the time we had Ergo with a 15-year life but then there was nowhere else to go,” Pretorius explained. “The FWGR project was the best available in South Africa, if not the world.”
However, expanding the partnership into platinum group metals (PGMs) recovery has proven challenging. While the original plan included diversifying into PGMs from Sibanye’s platinum mines acquired from Anglo American Platinum and Lonmin, complex corporate and BEE structures have stalled progress.
“The platinum portfolio is made up of different subsidiaries purchased over time from a number of different companies, each of which has its own BEE structure,” Pretorius said. “It’s a very complex corporate structure which makes it just too hard to divvy up and put into one thing.”
Despite these complications, Pretorius remains optimistic that a platinum deal will eventually materialise, though practical hurdles must first be addressed.
The company currently has enough material to fill its processing capacity for the next 15 years through existing operations, but Pretorius stressed that any new ventures must involve full ownership rather than joint ventures to avoid diluting DRDGold’s focus.
With former Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman’s retirement and replacement by Richard Stewart – whom Pretorius knows well from previous negotiations – the partnership appears set to continue evolving as DRDGold pursues its African expansion strategy.
The full article can be read in Miningmx’s The Mining Yearbook 2026 which is available by clicking the link below.
