Joburg mine dumps are behind world’s best-performing gold stock

The most successful way to be a gold producer may be to not operate any mines. That’s the business model of DRDGold, the world's best-performing gold stock.

Published on:

06 Aug 2020, 3:51 pm

As a child growing up in Johannesburg, we always seemed to be driving past mine dumps. They were just part of the scenery, much like the soothing litany of gold mine names followed by mysterious numbers that the SABC broadcast at regular intervals (our equivalent of the UK's iconic shipping forecast, perhaps?). It certainly wasn't generally known at the time that the dumps – left over from a century of mining – were, or would be, seeping toxic material into surrounding areas. And at the time, there was still a lot of gold to be got out of the ground. Now, in 2020, a mining company is turning those mine dumps into a fortune. DRDGold has no underground shafts. Instead, it is mining gold from the waste in the dumps. It has surged 271% in 2020, making it the biggest gainer on South Africa's FTSE/JSE Africa all share benchmark. The company is also riding on a record surge in the gold price globally. Not bad for a miner that doesn't actually operate a mine. – Renee Moodie