In the media

DRDGOLD ready to grow again

[Miningmx.com] - DRDGOLD CEO John Sayers is bowing out on a high from the marginal gold producer which has just declared a 10c a share dividend amounting to a total payout of R37.7m for its year to end-June.

DRDGOLD CEO John Sayers is bowing out on a high from the marginal gold producer which has just declared a 10c a share dividend amounting to a total payout of R37.7m for its year to end-June.

Sayers will retire at the end of December when his contract ends and be replaced by Niel Pretorius who is currently the MD of DRDGOLD’s South African operations.

Pretorius and Sayers have overseen a difficult year for DRDGOLD as it retreated from its former ventures in Australasia and focussed once more on its SA operations.

“From being an embattled gold miner trying to unsuccessfully to make the best of a suite of mismatched assets in two vastly different geographic regions of the world, we have returned pretty much to our roots,” Sayers commented.

According to DRDGOLD’s June quarterly report, the dividend was declared based on the current high gold price received and future dividends will only be considered if the gold price stays favourable.

Sayers added, “We are once again a distinctly South African gold miner doing what we do best - mining mature, deep-level mines and re-treating surface tailings. Much of our energy has been directed towards restoring our South African business first to stability, then to a sustainable level of production and to the establishment of a platform for organic growth.

“We are now at a point at which we believe optimisation of our current operations and projects, both underground and surface, could deliver total production of the order of 400,000oz per annum over time.”

Gold production from DRDGOLD’s SA operations dropped to 308,005oz in the year to June (previous comparable year - 334,496oz) while total production - including from discontinued operations - dropped to 321,432oz (477,157oz). DRDGOLD’s profit from operations more than doubled to R261.6m (R110m) and the net operating profit almost trebled to R312.1m (R111m) after taking into account R75.7m (R23.2) in investment income.

The writer owns shares in DRDGOLD.