Media releases

Trading statement for the 6 months ended 31 December 2015 & production update for the quarter ended 31 December 2015

Details

Published: Monday, 08 February 2016 02:00

In terms of paragraph 3.4(b) of the JSE Limited Listings Requirements, companies are required to publish a trading statement.

In terms of paragraph 3.4(b) of the JSE Limited Listings Requirements, companies are required to publish a trading statement as soon as they are satisfied that, with a reasonable degree of certainty, the financial results for the current reporting period will differ by at least 20% from the financial results of the previous corresponding period.

DRDGOLD is in the process of finalising its results for the six months ended 31 December 2015 (“Results”) and shareholders are accordingly advised that the Company expects to report:

• Headline earnings per share to be between 2.4 cents and 2.8 cents per share (an increase of 900% to 1 033%) compared to a loss of 0.3 cents per share for the previous corresponding period; and
• Earnings per share to be between 3.9 cents and 4.7 cents per share (an increase of 750% to 883%) compared to a loss of 0.6 cents per share for the previous corresponding period.

In a production update for the second quarter of FY2016 ended 31 December, released today,DRDGOLD reported a 2% increase in gold production quarter on quarter despite a decrease of 2% in throughput. Operating costs remained stable at R75 per tonne.

The increase in gold production was due to improved recovery grade and stabilisation after the introduction of five new leach tanks in the low-grade carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuit, and the switch-over from the carbon-in-pulp (CIP) process to CIL in the high-grade flotation/fine-grind (FFG) section.

After paying a dividend of R42 million, the Company ended the second quarter of FY2016 with R254 million in cash and cash equivalents, compared with R300 million in the previous quarter. The cash balance was impacted by VAT refunds amounting to approximately R40 million that was not received at 31 December, contrary to the ordinary VAT cycle.

The above information has not been reviewed or reported on by the Company’s auditors. The Company’s results are expected to be published on or about 16 February 2016.

Johannesburg
8 February 2016