Name of the Project
Far West Gold Recoveries (FWGR) operation.

Location
Gauteng, South Africa.

Project Owner/s
DRDGOLD’s acquisition of Sibanye-Stillwater’s (Sibanye’s) West Rand Tailings Retreatment Project (WRTRP) assets was finalised on July 31, 2018. Following the successful implementation of the transaction between the two companies, Sibanye owned 38.05% of the issued share capital of DRDGOLD.

Under the terms of the transaction, entered into in November 2017, Sibanye agreed to exchange selected surface-gold processing assets and tailings storage facilities (TSFs) for shares in DRDGOLD.

Sibanye also had an option to subscribe for further shares in DRDGOLD within 24 months at a 10% discount. In January 2020, Sibanye exercised this option, obtaining a 50.1% controlling interest in DRDGOLD.

Project Description
FWGR is being rolled out in a phased approach.

Phase 1 included early-stage production, involving upgrading the Driefontein 2 (DP2) plantto process tailings from the Driefontein 5 dump at between 400 000 t a month  and 600 000 t a month, depositing the residue on the Driefontein 4 tailings dam, which was upgraded to a cyclone deposition dam to cater for the higher throughput.

Phase 2 envisages the construction of a high-volume central processing plant capable of processing between 1.2-million and 2.4-million tonnes a month, the continued use of Driefontein 2 plant at an increased 600 000 t a month, and the development of a new regional TSF capable of receiving up to three million tonnes a month to a capacity of about 800-million tonnes.

In this phase, reclamation will initially be from the Driefontein 3, Libanon and Kloof 1 dumps, and then from the Ventersdorp North and South dumps. The scale of the infrastructure established in this phase will allow for reclamation from other sources in the region. The objective is to clean up the regional landscape by reprocessing tailings that are currently on dolomite, and redeposit the reclaimed material onto a properly designed and managed mega dam, thereby reversing the potential pollution of underground water in the region.

Phase 2 is expected to extend the life of the operation to 20 years and beyond, and good progress has been made in advancing this phase, with DRDGOLD well into the planning and permit application processes.

As an alternative to Phase 2, or if Phase 2 is delayed, Phase 1 can be extended by extending deposition onto the Driefontein 4 tailings dam, owing to the good cyclone splits being achieved at the tailings dam. Envisaged is the treatment of the remaining tonnes from Driefontein 5 and then processing material from Driefontein 3.

At the end of the 2021 financial  year, after its first full year of mining, FWGR reported gold production that was 2% higher than the previous year, at 1 460 kg, owing to a 2% increase in throughput to 6.2-million tonnes.

Potential Job Creation
Since its inception, FWGR has secured employment for more than 100 employees and is committed to its environmental, social and governance mandate, as well as social upliftment programmes, in the far West Rand area of operations. With the implementation of Phase 2 and extended life-of-mine, more opportunities are expected to create DRDGOLD’s value creation narrative.

Capital Expenditure
DRDGOLD invested R330-million of capital in Phase 1.

The cost of Phase 2 will depend on whether DRDGOLD chooses to build a second plant and TSF or expand the existing facilities.

Provisional results for 2021 financial year released on August 25, 2021, reported sustaining capital expenditure at FWGR of R110.8-million, which included FWGR's copper elution circuit and closed milling circuit projects.

Planned Start/End Date
Phase 1 commercial production began within eight months of the acquisition, on April 1, 2019, and made its maiden full 12-month contribution to DRDGOLD’s financial results in the 2020 financial year.

Construction of Phase 2 is planned to be completed by 2024/5, provided the requisite amendments to existing regulatory approvals are obtained, the gold market remains favourable and an investment climate prevails that is conducive to long-term investment on this scale.

Latest Developments
A project to convert the DP2 at the FWGR surface retreatment operation to closed-circuit milling is nearing completion.

The R80-million project will achieve a finer grind and, thereby, improve gold recovery rates, as well as enhance leaching conditions, reduce maintenance costs and increase water storage capacity in the current thickeners.

Before to its acquisition, DP2 treated 180 000 t a month of waste rock.

After its acquisition, the plant was converted from closed-circuit hard-rock milling to three-stage cyclone milling, in an open-circuit configuration, for the coarser fractions in the slimes reclaimed from the Driefontein 5 dump.

“The open-circuit configuration was used due to the limited thickening capacity of the original circuit, the need for a leach density of about 1.45 and to contain capital expenditure.

“[After] . . . commissioning and optimisation of the mill, improved gold recoveries of between 46% and 49% were achieved, but fell short of recoveries of more than 50%, which had been indicated from laboratory testwork,” FWGR MD Kevin Kruger has said.

FWGR will use closed-circuit milling, it was decided to close the circuit on the current mill to align the two.

“This will ensure that higher-grade, coarser particles don’t get just a single pass through the mill but multiple passes until fine,” Kruger has indicated.

The conversion to closed-circuit milling entails replacing the two tertiary cyclones with a cluster of cyclones that will classify the mill discharge, together with the primary and secondary cyclone overflows.

The coarse cluster underflow will return to the mill and the finer cyclone overflow to a new 45-m-diameter high-rate thickener.

The new thickener is required to adjust the slurry density to 1.45 for treatment in the carbon-in-leach plant.

The company expects to commission the converted plant in November.

Key contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
None stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
R&A Strategic Communications on behalf of DRDGOLD Jane Kamau, tel +27 11 880 3924 or email jane@rasc.co.za.