Modern Mining March 2015

GOLD

of its FFG circuit

erating costs, operating profit rose by 5 % to R164,1 million. The Ergo operation – run through DRDGOLD’s operating subsidiary Ergo Mining Proprietary Limited (Ergo), which is headed by MD Henry Gouws – is now DRDGOLD’s sole source of revenue, following its divestment of its last underground asset, Blyvoor, in 2013. Pretorius told the media group visiting Ergo that the company was now 100 % focused on hydraulic surface mining, which he described as a fully mechanised business, either remote controlled or automated, with a lower exposure to labour and electricity costs than conven- tional underground mining and with a superior safety profile. Another advantage was an unin- terrupted production cycle. Pretorius noted that ERGO was processing about 1,8 Mt of material a month and employed about 1 000 people and compared this with the Blyvoor operation which – when owned by DRDGOLD – did 80 000 tonnes a month and required around 4 500 permanent employees. 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 Knights plant in Germiston, milling and pump stations at Crown Mines and City Deep (both former plants), as

DRDGOLD is now 100 % focused on hydraulic surface mining.

March 2015  MODERN MINING  21