DRDGold wants to join forces with other gold mining companies to the west of Johannesburg to construct a vast tailings retreatment and area clean-up. CEO Niël Pretorius, whose company is embarking on a R300m first phase of a tailings processing project, said on Wednesday the creation of a mega tailings retreatment facility would bring cost and environmental benefits to the historical mining area. DRDGold counts Sibanye-Stillwater as a 38% shareholder after the gold and platinum group metals miner folded gold-bearing tailings into the retreatment specialist, giving DRDGold’s reserves an 82% boost to nearly 6-million ounces and opening a new operating area that could be the start of the consolidation of mine dumps west of Johannesburg.
While Pretorius conceded he had yet to talk to Harmony Gold and AngloGold Ashanti about his vision, he sees the retreatment plan for millions of tons of old dumps near Carletonville as the catalyst that could spark a clean-up of old dumps sited on...
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