DRDGOLD has secured approval from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) in South Africa for amendments to its integrated water-use licence.

The approval will enable the company to increase the deposition capacity of its subsidiary Ergo Mining’s Brakpan/Withok tailings deposition facility (TDF) from the exiting 200 million tonnes (mt) to about 800mt.

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DWS’ approval is set to bring DRDGold closer to a significant increase in the life of mine of Ergo.

Furthermore, it will serve as assurance of a long-term sustainable deposition site for the waste produced by treating AMD.

“DWS’ approval is set to bring DRDGold closer to a significant increase in the life of mine of Ergo.”

The increase in capacity is helpful to receive most of the mine waste tailings from the clean-up and reclamation sites of Ergo in and around the Johannesburg area.

DRDGold said that the amendments enabled the company to incorporate the bulk of the Withok tailings facility into the upgraded TDF.

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TDF also serves as a disposal facility for the water treatment plant of the DWS’s Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority in Boksburg.

Ergo has resources of about 10.8 million ounces of gold contained in mine waste.

The waste will be reprocessed at a rate of about 24 million tonnes a year.

Meanwhile, the company reported an increase of 4% in quarter, on quarter gold production for the quarter ending 31 March 2016 to 1,187kg.