DRDGOLD Ltd (NYSE:DRD, JSE:DRD) said that its flagship metallurgical plant, Ergo Mining Proprietary Limited has entered into a second five-year research and support agreement with the University of the Witswatersrand.
The South Africa-focused mine tailings specialist said the research agreement with the Gold Research Group in Wits University’s School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering will be aimed at optimising and improving the probability of increased gold recovery, as well as environmentally friendly treatment technologies and will be conducted by students under the supervision of their academic staff members.
“At DRDGOLD, we remain committed to engaging with educational institutions within the areas in which we operate to set up programmes aimed at upskilling our youth, to empower them to make an active contribution to our economy,” ERGO managing director Henry Gouws said in a statement.
READ: DRDGOLD prepares its mine tailings facilities for the “next growth phase”
“We look forward to working with the Gold Research Group within the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at Wits University as we seek to optimise and improve gold recovery as well as identify and evaluate environmentally friendly treatment technologies,” he added.
DRDGOLD said the technological focus areas of the research will comprise of four inter-related and interdependent categories, namely:
- Alternative leaching technologies
- Fluidisation and recovery technology
- Environmental treatment technologies
- Chemical measurements and modelling technologies
“Through the four categories, Wits University will assist Ergo in developing new leaching processes and using alternative leachants and ligands for a wide range of sulphides, develop fluidisation and packed bed technology for a new gas-phase technology for a wide range of sulphides,” program manager Professor Herman Potgieter said.
“They will also obtain a detailed and thorough understanding of the environmental impact of the Ergo plant operations in terms of energy usage, effluents, and emissions during the liberation of the gold contained in the sulphides.”
Gouws said the research will also assist Ergo in developing new measurement techniques to reliably quantify small amounts of gold in the leached solutions and predict the optimum reagents to use based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations and modelling techniques applied to various parts of the process.
The second five-year term of the research and support agreement runs from 2022 to 2026.
Wits University is a research-intensive university in Africa. The history of the university is inextricably linked to mining. Wits University is home to one of the oldest mining schools in the world, established in 1896 during the gold rush.
Ergo has a vast footprint adjacent to Johannesburg on the central and eastern Witswatersrand of South Africa. Its assets cover an area of approximately 62 kilometres (km) from east to west and 25 km from north to south. This large, single footprint was created as part of a rationalisation process in order to simplify the structure of DRDGOLD and focus on the reclamation and treatment of surface tailings deposits.
DRDGOLD is majority-owned by Sibanye-Stillwater, a major platinum group metals (PGMs) and gold producer.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com