Photo by: Duane Daws
Surface gold miner DRDGold will start using wastewater as an alternative water source to replace some of the potable water being used for Ergo Mining’s operations since July.
Speaking during a site visit to the East Rand-based Ergo mine, CEO Niel Pretorius said the sourced grey water would effectively replace all the drinkable water drawn from Rand Water, which equated to about 10% of the operation’s total water use.
DRDGold also sourced water for its operations from nearby reservoirs.
However, Pretorius believes there are better ways of tackling the challenge of limited resources, such as water, including using what was “thrown away”.
This follows year-long discussions with the local municipality as part of the group’s overall sustainability ambitions, which has seen the company investigating alternative sources of water to reduce its consumption of critically scarce potable water at its operations.