"the company’s North West operations were put into liquidation"
Zitat aus Artikel unten, nix von "selbständigem anderen Unternehmen" in Nordwest.
Es sind nicht nur die Pumpkosten,
da kommt als nächstes der "Konzernbetriebsrat"
sowas vorher abzustreiten, meine ich mit "bekloppter Geschäftsleitung".
Es sei denn man meint das nicht Ernst und hat ganz was anderes vor.
Was abzuwarten ist.
gogh
aus Mineweb vom 21.04.05
DRDGOLD’s Blyvoor restructuring shows results
=======================================
JOHANNESBURG (Mineweb.com) -- DRDGOLD, a South African and Australasian gold producer, has managed to lower the cash operating costs at its Blyvooruitzicht operations west of Johannesburg to R81,606/kg. Essentially, it means that during this year’s March quarter Blyvoor operated profitably at the prevailing rand gold price.
In DRDGOLD’s interim results presentation back in February, management announced that the Blyvoor mine had been successfully restructured and was able to survive in the strong rand environment.
The numbers, however, did not show it, as cash costs for the quarter to end-December were R87,520 per kilogram of gold produced, well in excess of the R82,000/kg that management had previously stated as a target.
Total cash operating costs at Blyvoor only decreased by a little over R1 million in the March quarter, but more gold was produced this time around.
Further west, towards the town of Klerksdorp, the company’s North West operations were put into liquidation last month even though management had earlier said the mines there would undergo a similar restructuring process as Blyvoor. Underground earthquakes ended up tolling the death knell, with an entire shaft collapsing after one set of seismic events. DRDGOLD had injected R200 million into the North West mines for no return, and decided enough was enough.
The main driver behind the lower costs at Blyvoor was the decrease of
the more-expensive underground operations.
Production from the
cheaper reprocessing of low-grade, gold-bearing increased marginally,
and the overall result was the lower average cost per kilo of gold.
In March last year, underground operations were contributing 209,000 tons to the total ore milled of 959,000 tons. In the three months to March 2005, only 140,000 tons were mined at a grade of 7.36g/t compared to 7.49g/t previously.
Management says it managed to increase the total tonnage processed from underground and surface sources to 920,000 tons in the March quarter from the 897,000 tons of the December quarter. This resulted in an increase in the quarter’s combined gold production from underground and surface to 39,995 ounces from 37,680 ounces in December.
Ilja Graulich, a DRD spokesman, says there are still seven years left of above-ground reserves at Blyvoor, while underground ore still holds 26 million ounces of gold. Whether all of the underground gold will be extracted remains to be seen and will depend largely on the rand gold price.
Management says other measures are being taken to improve underground productivity further. These include improved temperature control from the installation of spray chambers and a campaign to increase face advance per blast.
“A mine call factor strategy applied underground during the quarter involved tighter water management, the upgrading of mud settlers, and increased sweeping and vamping, with consequent improvements in efficiencies,” said a company release.
Management is also looking at re-establishing mining operations at
Blyvoor’s number 2 shaft for R50 million and increasing throughput on
surface by 33% at a capital cost of R7 million.
Graulich says that, previously, money was being spent on Northwest with no result, but now funds could be allocated to local and foreign operations where they can be put to better use.
Market watchers are withholding judgement on whether these lower
costs are sustainable especially after the North West incident. The share
price has reflected this loss of confidence making it South Africa’s worst-
performing gold share over the last year currently trading 75% lower than
its 52-week high of R20.40 a share.
The shares remained unchanged at R5 by lunchtime (SA time) on Thursday