High-flying DRDGOLD’s 18th consecutive dividend illuminated by 50%-higher payout

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Johannesburg- and New York-listed DRDGOLD on Tuesday, February 18, reported soaring half-year operating profit and 28%-higher revenue for the six months to December 31.

The strongly performing surface gold mining company, headed by CEO Niël Pretorius, declared a dividend for the eighteenth consecutive financial year.

Advertisement “Dividends for us are no longer just a policy but a value,” Pretorius stated during the half-year presentation covered by Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

“To take advantage of a very healthy gold price, you need to be able to produce – and our operations managed to do just that," Pretorius pointed out.

Advertisement “Focusing on paying a dividend requires financial discipline, which extends to the way that we manage our costs,” Pretorius added.

The well-led regeneration, climate-conscious, property-renewing and community-uplifting DRDGOLD is maintaining steady state as it moves into the new Vision 2028 organic expansion phase.

The gold price was a 26%-higher R1 478 663/kg amid operating profit leaping 74% to R1 578.7-million and headline earnings darting 65% to just under R1-billion.

Although it was overcast and rainy during the presentation of results, DRDGOLD CFO Riaan Davel made the point that the half-year financials reflected a “very sunny” performance and “really good trends”, which included the operating profit of Ergo being a whopping 92% higher at R828.7-million.

The interim dividend declared was 50% higher than last year’s corresponding half-year payout.

Not having to make use of the credit facility resulted in the company’s cash being a well-grounded R600-million plus, clearing the way for the board to declare a dividend one and half times the previous interim payout at 30c a share.

Half-year cash operating costs were a 6%-higher R866 221/kg, which is consistent with the rate of inflation.

Capital expenditure was a 12%-lower R947.6-million owing mainly to the completion of key projects and reduced commissioning activities on reclamation sites. Moreover, recourse to bank debt was absent from these capital re-investments.

An important achievement for the period was the integration of the solar plant and battery energy storage system into the national grid, which is providing ongoing direct cost reductions and shielding the Ergo gold-from-waste recovery operation on the East Rand and soon also Far West Rand Gold Recoveries on the West Rand from higher electricity costs and any supply interruptions.

As and when accounts have been transferred into the name of Far West Gold Recoveries, there will be the benefit of electricity wheeling as well.

Sixteen per cent less Eskom electricity was used in the half-year, even though more electricity was needed to accommodate the higher tonnage. That is the result of the commissioning of the Ergo solar plant, which is now up and running.

DRDGOLD COO Jaco Schoeman outlined how the power transition initially started off with a small solar plant of only 20 MW, which grew to 60 MW, with the battery story being similar as it worked its way to a capacity of 187 MW.

“For us to shut down the plant in a controlled manner, we need at least two hours of battery capacity,” Schoeman explained.

Ergo has now changed to higher volume sites and slightly lower head grades, bringing down the rand per ton profile.

Vegetation of tailing dams is ongoing and the slight increase in potable water consumption is not a bucking of the downward use of fresh water over the years.

Construction of the regional tailings storage facility at Far West Rand Gold Recoveries has progressed to a point where more than two-million cubic metres of starter wall ground has been moved and the basin and return water dams levelled. Civil work on the Driefontein 2 plant will continue to be the focus to increase its throughput capacity to 1.2-million tons a month.

Production guidance for financial year 2025, which ends on June 30, is unchanged at between 155 000 oz and 165 000 oz of gold at a cash operating cost of some R870 000/kg.

As part of Vision 2028, investment in capital infrastructure developments and making more use of renewable energy are under way.

Vision 2028’s target is to sustain a throughput rate of three-million tons a month, up from just over two-million tons currently, and to take gold production up from just north of five tons a year to six tons a year, which is over 200 000 oz/y.

The second part of Ergo being set up for the future involves the recommissioning of the Withok tailings dam, a licensed site, but a whole host of regulatory requirements need to be met to restore the site and again use it as an active deposition site.

The tailings dam is designed for 310-million tons, and the first public participation meeting reportedly went well and the design is expected to be submitted by July.