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GOLD
March 2015
MODERN MINING
21
of its FFG circuit
DRDGOLD is now 100 %
focused on hydraulic surface
mining.
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