| Thu 12 Nov 2009, 14:00 | | DRD - DRDGold Announces Granting Of Judicial Management Order Over |
|
DRD
DRDD
DRD - DRDGold Announces Granting Of Judicial Management Order Over
Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mining Company Limited ("Blyvoor"); Reports Improved
Monthly Performance by All Other Operations
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: DROOY
("DRDGOLD" or "the company")
DRDGOLD ANNOUNCES GRANTING OF JUDICIAL MANAGEMENT ORDER OVER BLYVOORUITZICHT
GOLD MINING COMPANY LIMITED ("BLYVOOR"); REPORTS IMPROVED MONTHLY PERFORMANCE BY
ALL OTHER OPERATIONS
DRDGOLD announced today that the High Court of South Africa ("the Court") has
approved its application for a judicial management order over the company`s 74%-
owned Blyvoor operation.
On Monday this week, DRDGOLD announced its intention to seek the order to
prevent the liquidation of Blyvoor, which has been in a loss-making position
since May 2009.
The Court granted a provisional judicial management order, in terms of the South
African Companies Act, on Tuesday.
DRDGOLD Chief Executive Officer, Niel Pretorius, said: "We are confident that
judicial management offers the best possible prospect of preventing Blyvoor`s
liquidation and of restoring the operation to financial health, all the while
protecting the interests of all stakeholders of both Blyvoor and DRDGOLD.
"Meanwhile, in line with DRDGOLD`s strategic shift towards lower risk, lower
cost, high margin production, the company`s surface retreatment operations -
which are unaffected by developments at Blyvoor - delivered an increase in gold
production of more than 9% in October compared with September, from 10,160
ounces to 11,092 ounces. These surface operations now deliver 66% of DRDGOLD`s
production and their proportion of the total is expected to continue to rise.
"While Blyvoor`s surface production was stable month on month, Crown and ERPM
were marginally higher with ErgoGold increasing by almost 38%."
Pretorius said that, in order to accelerate production build-up at ErgoGold, a
further R8 million had been approved to bring forward commissioning of a second
pipeline feed from the Elsburg Tailings Complex to the Brakpan plant.
The previously reported construction of a pilot plant to optimise the feed mix
to the Brakpan plant had been completed and was delivering encouraging results,
Pretorius said.
The effect of the Blyvoor provisional judicial management order is that:
- management of Blyvoor will become the responsibility of a provisional
judicial manager to be appointed by the Master of the High Court within a
few days` time;
- the provisional judicial manager will manage Blyvoor until 16 March 2010
when he/she will present to the Court a report on the performance of the
business;
- on, or prior to, 16 March 2010, interested and affected parties may
approach the Court and provide reasons why the order should be dismissed or
confirmed as final. If the order is confirmed, then a final judicial
management order will be made by the Court;
- if, at any stage prior to 16 March 2010, Blyvoor becomes profitable, any
interested and affected party, including DRDGOLD, may bring an application
before the Court to lift the provisional order.
The order shall be published in the government gazette and "The Star" newspaper.
Randburg
12 November 2009
Sponsor
QuestCo Sponsors
Date: 12/11/2009 14:00:01 Produced by the JSE SENS Department.
The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the
JSE Limited (`JSE`). The JSE does not, whether expressly, tacitly or
implicitly, represent, warrant or in any way guarantee the truth, accuracy or
completeness of the information published on SENS. The JSE, their officers,
employees and agents accept no liability for (or in respect of) any direct,
indirect, incidental or consequential loss or damage of any kind or nature,
howsoever arising, from the use of SENS or the use of, or reliance on,
information disseminated through SENS.
