Modern Mining August 2016

GOLD

FY2015 was just over 150 000 ounces. A further benefit of the Ergo operation is that it is environmentally friendly in the sense that it consolidates material from poorly-designed historic tailings dumps into modern, well- designed facilities, at the same time freeing up previously sterilised land for development. DRDGOLD puts enormous effort into rehabili- tating what remains of these old dumps and has revegetated 283,75 ha of top surfaces and side slopes over the past five years. The Ergo assets stretch across the central and eastern Witwatersrand over a distance of 62 km and include not only the Brakpan plant – originally established in the late 1970s by Anglo American – but also the standalone Knights plant in Germiston, milling and pump stations at Crown Mines and City Deep (both former plants), as well as an extensive network of pipelines. The Brakpan plant is the flagship operation and is responsible for the majority of gold production (about 75 % with Knights accounting for the balance), with most of its feedstock (roughly two thirds) being sourced from the Elsburg tailings complex. The overall resource being exploited by Ergo amounts to 10,8 Moz of gold. DRDGOLD has been involved with the Ergo assets since 2007 (initially in joint venture with Mintails, whose stake it purchased in two deals in 2008 and 2010) and has since modernised

and extended the operation, among other things constructing a 50 km long, 600 000 tonne/month capacity, HDPE-lined pipeline to link Crown and the Brakpan plant. The FFG circuit is the latest enhancement of the opera- tion and is designed to recover an additional 0,03 g/t from the tailings material (which gener- ally has a grade in the region of 0,28 g/t) passing through the plant. Talking to Modern Mining during the media visit, Jaco Schoeman, DRDGOLD’s Operations Director (he also carries the responsibilities of the COO position), said that the need for the FFG was identified several years ago when

Top: The flotation section of the FFG circuit at the Brakpan plant. Above: The flotation plant separates the incoming feed into high-grade (the flotation concentrate) and low-grade (the flotation tails) streams.

August 2016  MODERN MINING  29