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Johannesburg- and New York-listed DRDGOLD's projects under way are "advancing very well" as the gold-from-tailings company's 2028 Vision gets a massive boost from the sky-high gold price.

Mining Weekly discussed this in a Zoom interview with DRDGOLD CEO Niël Pretorius and DRDGOLD CFO Riaan Davel, which we now publish following last week's declaration of an eighteenth consecutive financial year of dividend payout by the company that on April 25 will celebrate 130 years of being listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

The shareholders of DRDGOLD are continuing to benefit from consistently impressive on-surface gold recovery at the 13-year life-of-mine (LoM) Ergo, east of Johannesburg, as well as its rapidly advancing 20-year LoM Far West Gold Recoveries (FWGR) activities west of the Golden City.

"We're working hard to optimise our existing asset base. Basically what we're doing now is Ergo Two," Pretorius added in referring to initial life of mine plan for Ergo, acquired in 2007, having been mined out," Pretorius outlined.

Ergo Two's first new vital thrust is the cost-cutting 60 MW solar power plant at the tailings reprocessing plant, plus the commissioning of a 160 MWh battery energy storage system.

The second part of Ergo Two involves the expansion of the Brakpan tailings storage facility and commissioning of the Withok tailings facility in order to restore the throughput rate back to some 1.8-million tons a month.

That's the target of Vision 2028, along with a whole new range of resources that will be accessed over the next few years.

At the same time, on the Far West Rand, taking progressive shape are the Far West Gold Recoveries activities involving repurposing and recommissioning the Driefontein Two plant's throughput to 600 000 t a month, from its consistent current 500 000 t a month.

But, from the outset, work started on the design of the regional tailing storage facility (RTSF), where more than two-million cubic metres of material have been moved from the large 800 ha site.

The second component of the RTSF project is the doubling in size of the Driefontein Two plant to take it to 1.2-million tons a month, and through Vision 28, establishing the capital infrastructure to support a throughput of three-million ton a month.

This is about one-million tons higher than currently. Thereafter gold output will be increased by roughly a ton a year, or 40 000 oz, to take DRDGOLD to more than 200 000 oz, sustaining that for many years to come.

"These are exciting projects. They're all going well," Pretorius enthused.

The gold price at record highs is providing the ability to aggressively reinvest into supporting capital infrastructure.

DRDGOLD has spent close to R1-billion on capital infrastructure in the last six months, and has not had to dip into its debt facility set up during the course of last year.

Mining Weekly: How strong is DRDGOLD's balance sheet and what are its added strength prospects in the light of the record gold price?

Davel: We're very proud of our of our balance sheet. From31 December 2023 to 31 December 2024, our property, plant and equipment, grew by R3-billion and the majority of that investment has gone into the solar and battery system at Ergo, which is now practically complete. And then, it's strong in that we still have cash in the bank of just over R600-million at the end of December. We've always invested in rehabilitation funds or assets on our balance sheet, so it's really a strong foundation for us to grow from and the gold price is really supporting our growth.

Our model is brilliant from that point of view, in that we still operating fully at both Ergo and Far West Gold Recoveries, based on its capacity, and constraints that we want t...