Wed Feb 13 2013
Surface gold miner DRDGold on
Tuesday reported a rise in production for the first half of the 2013 financial
year on the back of continuing stabilisation in the operation of the JSE-listed
group’s new Crown/Ergo pipeline. The company last year completed the
consolidation of its Crown and Ergo circuits, as well as the R300-million
construction of a 50 km pipeline linking the Crown Central operations, in
Roodepoort, to Ergo’s Brakpan plant.
DRDGold reported gold output of
39 031 oz for the quarter ended December 2012, up 15% on the 33 983 oz produced
in the corresponding period in the prior year. This also represented a 9%
quarter-on-quarter increase from the 35 815 oz produced in the first quarter of
the 2013 financial year.
Further, gold output for the six
months ended December 31 amounted to 74 846 oz, up 9% on the 68 545 oz produced
in the first half of the previous financial year. Gold sales for the December
quarter increased to 39 031 oz in the December quarter, up from the 33 983 oz
produced in the December 2011 quarter and the 37 905 oz reported in the quarter
ended September 2012.
Headline earnings rose
quarter-on-quarter, from R77.2-million to R93-million. However, this was down year-on-year
from the R125.3-million in the second quarter of the previous financial year. Headline
and basic earnings a share from continuing operations increased from 15c in the
December quarter of the prior year, to 25c in the second quarter of 2013. DRDGold
achieved profit after tax of R124-million, up from R73.1-million year-on-year
and R93-million quarter-on-quarter.
The group declared an interim dividend of 14c a share.
Source: miningweekly.com