JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – It's been a very good year for DRDGOLD, was the opening remark of CEO Niël Pretorius about the company’s 4 839 kg gold production exceeding annual guidance and 85%-higher free cash flowing in spite of major R3.5-billion capital expenditure and a final R1-billion-plus cash dividend payout that roughly equalled the total market cap of the company when Pretorius did his first presentation 19 years ago.
“The production was pretty pleasing,” said Pretorius about coming within a hair’s breadth of 5 t of gold production, which was roughly 5 000 oz higher than the top end of guidance thanks to “very smart management” of the throughput mix. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)
Achieved was an average yield of just under 0.2 g/t, which was a 2% increase on plants that were working very efficiently.
With the exception of a very short period in 2018 when the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company needed to protect cash flows, DRDGOLD has never hedged and deliberately so.
That placed it in a position to take full advantage of the 40% increase in the gold price, which translated into revenue for the year of a 42%-higher R11-billion-plus.
