Ergo

The joint venture between DRDGOLD SA and Mintails SA – now known as Ergo – was established during FY07 to explore, evaluate and process surface gold, uranium and sulphur bearing tailings on the East and Central Rand goldfields of South Africa.

Central to this programme is the company’s acquisition of significant gold-bearing tailings materials and remaining infrastructure surrounding Ergo, a surface reclamation operation on the East Rand goldfields, which produced substantial quantities of gold, uranium and sulphuric acid during its life to 2004, when it was discontinued by AngloGold Ashanti.

Currently under way, Phase 1 of this project involves the refurbishment of one of the two carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuits at Ergo’s Brakpan plant. It is planned to take the annual tailings re-treatment rate from 7.2 million tonnes a year, starting from the fourth quarter of 2008, to 15 million tonnes a year from mid-2009, when the operation is anticipated to be producing 75 000 ounces of gold a year.

Tailings for re-treatment will be drawn initially from the Benoni tailings dam at a rate of 600 000 tonnes per month. This dam contains 14.3 million tonnes at 0.36g/t.

Another 600 000 tonnes a month will be added from the Elsburg tailings complex, which comprises five tailings dams, from April 2009. A Competent Person’s Report by RSG Global has defined a Measured Resource of 1.7 million ounces of gold.

Details of the Measured Resource, compliant with the South African Code for Reporting of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (SAMREC), are given in the table below.

Measured Mineral Resource Statement for Elsburg Complex (November 2007)

Dump	Tonnes (Mt)	Grade (g/t)	Au (Tonnes)	Au (Moz)
4/L/48 and 4/L/49	114.0	0.33	37.3	1.20
4/L/47 and 4/L/47A	34.2	0.26	8.7	0.28
4/L/50	23.4	0.25	5.9	0.19
Total	171.6	0.30	51.9	1.67

Re-treated tailings will be deposited at first on the Ergo’s landmark Brakpan tailings dam and subsequently on the adjacent Withok tailings dam footprint.

Total capital expenditure for the project is R611 million; DRDGOLD’s contribution will amount to R275 million. It is estimated that operating expenditure will be R30 per tonne from October 2008 to June 2009, going down to R23 per tonne after that.

Studies currently under way and scheduled for completion later in 2008 will determine the viability both of a second phase of refurbishment of the Brakpan plant to re-commission the second CIL plant to double the re-treatment rate to 30 million tonnes a year and to produce uranium and sulphuric acid.

Also expected to be completed towards the end of 2008, is a feasibility study commissioned in respect of the production of uranium and sulphuric acid.

While conservative current financial and operating planning anticipates a life of 12 years for Ergo, the company has potential access to 1.7 billion tonnes of gold tailings on the East Rand, containing some 15 million ounces of gold. Treatment of these could extend the operation’s life to 25 years.

Ergo will be operated by Crown.