Modern Mining February 2020

MINING News

DRDGOLD Limited (JSE, NYSE: DRD) has declared a dividend of 25 South African cents per share for the six months ended 31 December 2019, following a six-fold increase in group operating profit to R719,6-million from the six months ended 31 December 2018. Key drivers for the improvement, says CEO Niël Pretorius, were a 33% increase in gold production to 3 037kg and a 26% rise in the average Rand gold price received to R697 125/kg. Higher gold production was a conse- quence both of steady performance from the group’s Ergo operation and of the first phase of its Far West Gold Recoveries Increased gold production pays dividends for DRDGOLD (FWGR) operation reaching full throughput of 500 000 tpm. Reflecting on the impact of load- shedding by power utility Eskom and on an armed robbery at Ergo during the six months under review, then looking ahead to the rest of FY2020 and beyond, Pretorius says: “We look forward to build- ing on the solid performance from both Ergo and FWGR, and to further enhance our resilience to poor service delivery and crime. We are on track to meet the upper range of our FY2020 guidance for the Group as a whole and we will work hard to keep up the momentum.

“The work we have put in over the years in terms of social and natural value-add now stand us in good stead in developing our narrative in terms of the heightened awareness of ESG. We want increasingly to be associated with remediation and rolling back the environmental legacy of mining on the Witwatersrand. “In terms of developing the potential of the business, we are moving full steam ahead on the studies required to realise Phase II of FWGR and it is our intention to also ‘start the conversation’ on our moving into the reprocessing of Platinum Group Metals dumps.” 

Reclamation of tailings from the Driefontein 5 Tailings Dam by a remotely operated high-pressure water jet, ahead of retreatment at Far West Gold Recoveries’ DP2 plant to extract gold.

549 carat diamond recovered at Lucara’s Karowe mine Lucara Diamond Corp. has recovered an unbroken 549 carat white diamond of exceptional purity from its 100% owned Karowe Diamond Mine located in Botswana. The 549 carat diamond was recovered from direct milling of ore sourced from the EM/PK(S) unit of the South Lobe. This follows the recent recovery of a gem quality 176 carat stone from the same ore block. The EM/PK(S) continues to produce large gem quality diamonds in line with expectations and forms an impor- tant economic driver for the potential underground mine at Karowe. The EM/PK(S) has also delivered other high value diamonds includ- ing the 1 758 carat Sewelô, the 1 109 carat Lesedi La Rona, and the 813 carat Constellation diamond. The 549 carat diamond was recovered in the MDR (Mega Diamond Recovery) XRT circuit that allows for diamond recovery post primary crushing and prior to milling. The 549 carat diamond is the second diamond recovered from the MDR which was com- missioned in 2017. Year to date in 2020, Karowe has produced 6

diamonds greater than 100 carats. Lucara will under- take a decision on the sale of the 176 and 549 carat diamonds in due course. “Lucara is extremely

pleased to be starting off 2020 with the recovery of two, large, high quality diamonds that builds on the positive momentum generated following the completion of a strong

4 th quarter sale in December and the announcement of our ground breaking partnership with Louis Vuitton on the Sewelô in January. The unbroken 549 carat diamond is the fourth largest diamond recovered at Karowe and the first large gem to be recovered through the MDR,” says Eira Thomas, Lucara’s CEO. 

8  MODERN MINING  February 2020