| Tue 4 Nov 2008, 7:30 | | DRD - DRDGold Limited - No Underground Drilling And Blasting At ERPM`s Far East |
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DRD
DRDD
DRD - DRDGold Limited - No Underground Drilling And Blasting At ERPM`s Far East
Vertical Shaft Currently
DRDGOLD LIMITED
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
(Registration number 1895/000926/06)
JSE share code: DRD
ISIN: ZAE000058723
Issuer code: DUSM
Nasdaq trading symbol: DROO
("DRDGOLD" or "the company")
No underground drilling and blasting at ERPM`s Far East Vertical Shaft currently
DRDGOLD announced today that no drilling and blasting is taking place currently
at the ERPM gold mine of its 74%-held subsidiary, DRDGOLD South African
Operations (Pty) Limited. The ERPM mine is located in Boksburg, on South
Africa`s East Rand.
On 23 October 2008, DRDGOLD announced that it could become necessary to halt
underground drilling and blasting as a consequence of the cessation of pumping
of Central Witwatersrand Basin water from ERPM`s South West Vertical ("SWV")
Shaft with effect from 6 October 2008. Pumping was ceased for safety reasons,
following the asphyxiation of two employees underground at the SWV Shaft on 19
September 2008.
DRDGOLD CEO-Designate, Niel Pretorius, said today: "The underground pumping
infrastructure at ERPM`s South East Vertical Shaft is currently unable to cope
with both the rising level of water in the Central Witwatersrand Basin and water
generated from ice supplied underground from surface to the mine`s only
producing shaft, the Far East Vertical ("FEV") Shaft, on a daily basis to cool
the working places.
"Currently, therefore, we are unable to supply ice underground to adequately
cool the working areas and are thus unable to send production crews underground.
We have therefore halted all drilling and blasting operations at ERPM.
"We continue to engage with all stakeholders - notably government and unions -
in discussions regarding these circumstances and how best to manage them."
Avenues of investigation include the installation of additional pumping capacity
at the FEV Shaft but initial indications are that this would be both costly and
would take several months to implement, Pretorius said.
Randburg
4 November 2008
Sponsor : QuestCo Sponsors (Pty) Limited
Date: 04/11/2008 07:30:03 Produced by the JSE SENS Department.
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