Nach den gestrigen EMP-Zahlen, folgen nun die Zahlen der Mutti.
Die erste Gurke hat das Schiff verlassen - Supi
Wann findet endlich das Kielholen von MWW statt?
Ncholo verläßt DRD, nachdem Afrikaplan steckenbleibt
Ncholo quits DRDGOLD as Africa plan stalls
Brendan Ryan
Posted: Fri, 28 Apr 2006
[miningmx.com] -- DRDGOLD shares have under-performed badly in the current gold bull market and some obvious reasons are to be found in the poor set of March quarter production results released April 28.
Not only has there been a string of poor operating performances at mines in both South Africa and Australasia, but the haemorrhage of long-serving, senior executives also continues.
The latest to jump ship is Paseka Ncholo who heads up DRDGOLD’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) partner Khumo Bathong. Ncholo follows in the footsteps of former financial director and CEO Ian Murray who left DRDGOLD in November last year and is now resident in Perth, Western Australia.
Ncholo was the executive chairman of DRDGOLD South Africa (DRDSA) and he was the executive tasked to head up DRDGOLD’s diversification strategy moving into the rest of Africa.
DRDGOLD CEO, Mark Wellesley-Wood, points out Ncholo remains a non-executive director of DRDSA representing the interests of the Khumo Gold SPV (special purpose vehicle). He describes Ncholo’s departure as "a blow" and says Ncholo left because of increasing demands on his time from other businesses commitments.
Niel Pretorius as been appointed as acting CEO while a job search is carried out to find a replacement for Ncholo.
Wellesley-Wood says the planned diversification into Africa has not being going as well as planned [Blockierte Grafik: http://www.smiliemania.de/smilie132/00000285.gif] and it’s something he intends tackling as a priority - just as soon as he has the Emperor Mines situation bedded down in Australia.
The March numbers show sharp cost increases at mines in both South Africa and Australasia and, in particular, a worrying trend of problems with local communities having severe impacts on operations in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
According to Steve Shepherd, an analyst at JP Morgan, the operational results were “... the worst DRDGOLD overall operating performance we can recall having analysed. [Blockierte Grafik: http://www.smiliemania.de/smilie132/00000116.gif] Forecasting risk is extremely high”.
“It must be said though, that we think this set of numbers should reflect the group’s nadir (Tiefstpunkt),” Shepherd said. 
The Tolukuma mine lost ten days of production because of action taken by landowners to block the hydro pipeline. The mine has previously had problems resulting from sabotage of its facilities by local villagers.
Wellesley-Wood says the Porgera mine - in which DRDGOLD has a 20% stake - lost seven days of production after power pylons were blown up.
Operations at both mines were also badly affected by the unusually heavy rains which have been hitting most of South East Asia since the beginning of the year.
Wellesley-Wood reckons the main impact on DRDGOLD’s results comes from the problems at Porgera which is now run by Barrick following its takeover of Placer Dome. DRDGOLD has no input into the management of Porgera.
Porgera is battling to counter the impact of last year’s collapse of part of the open pit wall. The March numbers show a 26% drop in gold output from the December quarter and an accompanying, horrific 58% jump in cash operating costs to $455/oz from $288/oz previously. [Blockierte Grafik: http://www.smiliemania.de/smilie132/00000285.gif]
Back in South Africa, forecast problems at Blyvoor turned out to be worse than expected [Blockierte Grafik: http://www.smiliemania.de/smilie132/00000285.gif] as the move of mining operations away from areas of dangerously high seismicity promptly ran into the Alpha Dyke earlier than anticipated. That negatively affected production.
Underground grade plunged 26% to 4,59g/t (previous quarter - 6,18g/t) while cash operating costs were 15% higher at R109,914/kg (R95,564/kg).
The only good news came from ERPM where both production and grade from underground sources is rising with the result that cash operating costs dropped 5% to R98,045/kg (R103,518/kg).
The DRDGOLD share price hit a 12-month peak of 1210c in mid-January at a time when the gold price then sat at record levels around R110,000/kg.
At current, higher record levels around R123,000/kg the DRDGOLD share price has dropped to around 940c which is 22% down on the January high. That’s a strange situation given the way DRDGOLD has performed in prior bull markets.It’s difficult to believe this company was once known as the "Roodepoort Rocket." [Blockierte Grafik: http://www.smiliemania.de/smilie132/00000285.gif]
Wellesley Wood reckons part of the reason is that the market is not seeing the value in DRDGOLD’s Australasian assets which are now held through ASX- listed Emperor Mines in which DRDGOLD has an 88% stake.
Emperor shares went up 20% on the ASX today after release of the latest, high-grade exploration results from the Tolukuma mine. DRDGOLD shares did not respond.
Wellesley-Wood comments: "On current share prices Emperor accounts for about 85% of DRDGOLD’s market cap and we’ve got $30m in cash which means that the SA operations are being thrown in for nothing in terms of the current DRDGOLD share price."
One way of tackling that value problem is the possible split of DRDGOLD into a separate, listed African and Australian operations.
http://www.miningmx.com/gold_silver/274059.htm
as underground operations were 
