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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold and Silver Juniors, Mid-tiers and Producers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (52016)	11/4/2007 9:13:50 AM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 78427

South Africa: Tailings Venture Will Yield '200kg of Gold a Month' Business Day (Johannesburg) 2 November 2007 Charlotte Mathews Johannesburg GOLD miner DRDGold expects to earn about 100kg of gold a month from its share of the joint venture with Mintails to process tailings dams on the East Rand, it said yesterday. DRDGold announced in June it had formed a 50/50 joint venture with Australian-listed Mintails, called the Ergo Mining Joint Venture. The venture would see DRDGold contribute its Elsburg Tailings Complex, containing about 180-million tons of tailings, and Mintails would contribute a processing plant. DRDGold said venture partners had agreed to contribute R200m each to the project, on which work had begun. DRDGold has also entered into a joint venture on the East Rand, called Kgosi Mining, with Mintails and a third partner, to extract gold and uranium from surface tailings and underground. DRDGold SA CEO Niel Pretorius said DRDGold was expected to hold 45% of equity in the new vehicle. A prospectus was being issued for an initial capital raising, managed by Mintails in London. In the September quarter DRDGold grew production from its South African mines 11% to 89157oz compared with the June quarter at an average cash operating cost of $584/oz, which is 1% lower than in June. The group recently sold its 78,7% stake in its Australasian operations, held via Emperor Mines, getting R340,9m. As the investment was written down to zero, under international financial reporting standards that sum represented a profit. The inflow boosted the company's cash resources to R897m. DRDGold CEO John Sayers said the Australasian operations had been "a very unsuccessful investment" which had put debt on the balance sheet which those operations could not service. DRDGold's future strategy would be to improve efficiencies within its operations in SA, develop its uranium potential and expand surface retreatment operations in SA. Quarterly revenue rose 13% to R433m on higher output and a better gold price received, but the headline loss rose to 11,7c a share from June's 10,2c loss on a higher number of shares in issue. At Blyvoor, gold production from underground increased but surface output fell, which led to a 9% increase in total cash operating costs. At surface retreatment operator Crown, cash operating profit rose 14% while at ERPM, total gold production surged 28%, reflecting a better performance from underground and surface operations.