JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The restoration of metallurgical efficiencies and operating business improvements has secured DRDGold a 6% uptick in gold output in the six months to December 31.
CEO Niël Pretorius said in a trading update to shareholders on Wednesday that the higher gold output would lead to 5% more profit than the first half of the prior financial year, recovering marginally from the losses incurred after the failure of its then-new flotation and fine-grind (FFG) circuit technology in April last year.
The tailings retreatment specialist suspended the faltering operation of the FFG at Ergo Mining's Brakpan plant following a series of metallurgical instabilities causing gold output to nosedive, swinging the group to a loss of R54.7-million in the 2014 financial year.
Construction of the high-grade facility, which comprised a flotation circuit, a set of fine-grind mills and the cyanide leach and carbon-in-pulp (CIP) circuit, was completed in January 2014 and was intended to increase recoveries by between 16% and 20%.
DRDGold last year embarked on testwork to determine why the FFG had achieved positive float and grinding results, but the CIP section failed to stabilise, contributing to metallurgical instability and carbon inefficiencies downstream in the existing carbon-in-leach circuit or low-grade section.
Following the successful completion of testwork in December, the second flotation stream was restarted in the second week of January, with the third stream expected to come on line by the end of this week.
DRDGold’s cash and cash equivalents balance had also increased 19% since September.
The group’s financial results for the six months to December would be released on February 19.