DRDGOLD - Earnings Call - H2 2025
August 20, 2025
Transcript
Speaker 6
You may listen to the presentation of our results for the year ended the 30th of June, 2025. You'll see that there are four places for my colleagues. The format today is a little different. As usual, myself and Riaan will be talking to the operations strategy and finance. Today will also be the day we'll be introducing Henriette Hooijer, who's our CFO-designate. She'll do part of the presentation as well. You've heard us talk about Vision 2028 and where DRDGOLD is in terms of its own story, its own journey. Ergo, which was recommissioned in 2008, had a planned life of roughly 12 years or an approximate life of 12 years. As we went on, we added further years to that as we accumulated additional resources. At one point, it became apparent that Ergo wasn't going to close down.
In order for it to extend its life, certain things had to happen. Part of the Vision 2028 initiative involves various projects that are designed to extend that life-of-mine. Ergo is currently in an interim phase. Jaco Schoeman, our Chief Operating Officer, will tell you more about what's being done to give effect to that ambition to extend Ergo's life-of-mine. Far West Gold Recoveries, when we acquired it from Sibanye in 2018, I think we've spoken about phase one and phase two on a number of occasions. What's happening at Far West Gold Recoveries operations at this stage is the implementation, the work necessary to give effect to Far West Gold Recoveries phase two. There's a very specific part of this presentation that Jaco will talk to under the Vision 2028.
He will explain to you what it is that we've been doing and what it is that we still need to do in order to give effect to the Vision 2028 objective of 3 million tons a month and 200,000 ounces, six tons of gold per annum. The disclaimer, you've seen a number of times, it hasn't changed. Please just take cognizance of the fact that there may be some forward-looking statements in this presentation. My involvement today is going to be limited. I'm going to take you through some of the key performance indicators for the year. I'm really going to start off by reflecting briefly on pointing out what's happened in terms of tonnage throughput, this one over there. You'll recall that in 2024 financial year, we spoke about some of the challenges that we faced in order to achieve volume throughput as a consequence of certain delays.
After having secured the licenses necessary to start opening up newer sites, we were finally back on track and the company is back at 25 million tons per annum. This is pretty much what it will look like for the foreseeable future until Vision 2028 starts taking effect and we'll start incrementally rolling that out. You'll also see that the average yield, though, has been marginally down. That is a consequence of the nature of the ore body that we're mining now or the resources that we're mining now. Towards the end of 2024, most of what we were mining, and you'll see that in the operational summary as well, most of what we were mining was either resources or reclamation sites in a late phase, in the final stages, or cleanup sites.
Typically, what you will find, and I'll spend a little bit more time on that, is that in the early days of reclamation, grades are typically a little bit lower than average. Towards the latter phase, it's typically higher. We were at a point where a lot of the old core sites were being mined out, the final cleanup for many of those sites. The grade makeup, the head grade makeup now compared to then is actually quite a lot different. There's a lot of new sites that have been commissioned in the last year, year and a half. An important indicator for us, an important parameter, and that's indicative of where it is that we want to be trending over time, is that rand-per-ton cost. You'll see that that has trended down quite nicely.
The way that you plan and design a business like ours is, remember, our resources are basically stockpiled waste. You can get a fairly good idea of the gold content of your stockpiled waste. By just doing a simple calculation, you can figure out that in a particular combination, either individually or in a particular combination, what you could generate in terms of revenue per ton. You apply your extraction factor, and that gives you, based on whatever your assumption is in terms of gold price, an indication as to your revenue per ton. In designing your business going forward, this number is really important, the rand-per-ton. Rand-per-kilo, that's an important indicator of how profitable you are, but that's more of an efficiency measure. It's not really an indicator of what it's taking to put your business together.
You need to know what the revenue-generating potential of your ore body is and then design a cost construct that comes in below that based on your assumptions. That is a number that we always report on and that we keep a very keen eye on. That informs how we design both the throughput model and also the blend of material going forward. Of course, what's a very important milestone for us is the fact that now for the last 18 years, we've been paying dividends and we were in a position to pay a final dividend this year. It's double of what the interim was. I think total dividends at $0.60, if I'm not mistaken, for the year. $0.30 and $0.20 last year, sorry. That's where the doubling came out. The standard dividend was the $0.20 dividend and we managed to double that now.
The final dividend is $0.40, which we hope is an indication of what the board and management believe, what the status, the condition, let's call it the blood pressure of the business is relative to our near and medium-term commitment and also what we believe we can expect in terms of cash flows based on our current assumptions. Revenue nicely up 26%, operating profit up 69%. The main actor this year, the two main actors this year, obviously, were the gold price, which is significantly higher, much higher than I ever thought it would be when I joined this company in 2003, and the fact that we managed to bring back a measure of predictability of stable state, albeit in this interim phase before we start hitting the profiles that we envisage for the Vision 2028 project.
We did spend a lot of CapEx, two and a half billion rand, but gold price assisted us to avoid having to dip into our facilities. We finished the year cash positive. That, of course, makes the decision with regards to paying a dividend a lot easier. You'll see also a 69% increase in cash operating profit, 69% increase in headline earnings. From a financial performance perspective, I think we had the benefit of a business that deliberately takes full exposure to the gold price, having been set up in such a way that we could take a significant advantage of this very, very significant increase in gold price over the year. Sustainable development, I'm just going to gloss over at this stage because right at the end, there's a slide that gives you an indication as to the 10-year trends over time.
I think those of you that have listened to our presentations over time, you will know that this is a very important part of our business, that sustainable development or ESG, which is what's been called recently, is pretty much baked into the DNA of our business and is an important part of our value system. Moving on to the next slide, operating performance. I alluded to what you could see in terms of, firstly, volume throughput, which picked up nicely from the previous year. There, in terms of production, you could see and yield, you could see how these mature sites had significantly lower volumes, gave us higher yields. Low volume throughput, but high yield because of the fact that they were sort of in their latter stages. That's now changed.
This is a much more accurate indicator of what you can expect from Ergo over the next few years and going into the future. That number is slightly conservative because of the impact of the rains in the third quarter. That was a tough quarter for us because many of our sites were inaccessible. The volume profile was even lower than the throttle profile that we're maintaining now. The numbers in the fourth quarter, the final quarter, is a good indicator of what you can expect from Ergo going forward. Ergo 2 is not Ergo 1. Ergo 1 was our flagship, 2.1 million tons per month. It was accessing some really high-quality sites. Ergo 2 is going to look different. Jaco Schoeman will explain to you what that volume profile is going to look like, what that grade profile is going to look like.
It is not going to be running at the same margins, but it's the sort of asset which, considering where it is, considering what we have in terms of human capital and infrastructure, you're just not going to leave it behind. In this sort of gold price environment, and one which is quite a bit lower than what we're currently experiencing, it is definitely the sort of business that you want to hold on to and that you want to continue to take advantage of, that you want to exploit. Far West Gold Recoveries, see, that's pretty much a flat line. You do see here slightly lower yield and slightly lower production. That's a function also of how its throughput profile has changed.
Far West Gold Recoveries started the number three dam a while back, which is a slightly lower grade dam compared to number five dam, which was the initial dam. The cleanup at number five dam is also now starting to basically come to an end. Number five dam is increasingly starting to look like what that site used to look like before mine waste was being deposited onto it. That was the first site mined out. Number three dam is the next site. Vision 2028 tells you the story of how that blend is going to look, what it's going to look like going forward. Far West is steady as she goes. In terms of group operating trends, you can see that we're sort of marginally below the five tons, about 180 kilos lower than where we ended up last year. That's because the mix has basically changed.
As I said earlier, this is pretty much what you can expect for this interim phase until we go back to 3 million tons a month and that target of 200,000 ounces of gold going forward into the future. I think at this stage, I'm going to hand over to Riaan, who will do the introduction for Henriette. Then she'll take us through some of the financial performance numbers for the year.
Speaker 1
Thank you, Niël. Thanks very much. Thank you very much, Niël. Good day, everyone. As it has been for the previous 10 presentations, it is again my privilege today to take you through the DRDGOLD Limited year-end numbers. Personally, it has always been more about the story behind the numbers and that fascinates and still fascinates me, the idea of social environmental impact delivered at the same time as financial impact. Firstly, as I always do, I'd like to thank every person working at and with DRDGOLD Limited, relentlessly pursuing our purpose of rolling back the environmental legacy of mining, adding to quality of life. Resiliently, through rain and sunshine, winter and summer, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, I honor you and I thank you. Please allow me to specifically mention the broader finance team that I work with.
What a privilege and what an amazing team and definitely one of the highlights of my life. To all of you, thank you very much. It is very special reflecting on our 130-year history and to announce record results, as Niël has mentioned a couple, even more so. Before I get to the slightly shorter presentation today for me of the details of the results, I would please like to introduce Henriette Hooijer, our Chief Financial Officer-designate. I've known and worked with Henriette for almost 20 years. From personal experience, I can assure you the idea is in very good hands. I love the idea of someone with a unique personality, unique skill set, but at the same time with a deep knowledge of DRDGOLD Limited, bringing fresh energy and her own perspective to the CFO role.
You'll recall that after spending time in the corporate reporting space at DRDGOLD Limited from 2016, Henriette was instrumental with Kevin Kruger to get Far West Gold Recoveries Proprietary Limited going for us in 2018. What a successful operation that has been for DRDGOLD Limited and still is. Further, Henriette has deep operational knowledge across both Far West Gold Recoveries Proprietary Limited and Ergo Mining Proprietary Limited and is also very close to our projects, which, as you know, is very, very important for us over the short to medium term. I know Henriette will continue to play a significant role at DRDGOLD Limited also as the Chief Financial Officer. I will now kindly ask Henriette, as Niël alluded to it, to please present the operational finance slides that follow. She'll obviously join us for questions afterwards as well. Please, Henriette, thank you.
Speaker 2
Okay. Good morning, everybody. Thank you, Riaan, for that kind words. Yeah, I've got the privilege today to take you through the financial performance of Ergo and Far West. As Niël already mentioned, Ergo had a tough quarter, a tough third quarter, and they did exceptionally well, actually, to pull back in that fourth quarter. If you look at the revenue trend, obviously, the star performer is the gold price, with a 31% increase in the gold price from about R1,250,000 per kilogram last year to R1,630,000 per kilogram in the current financial year, ending Ergo's in the last six months of just under R3 billion. Cash operating costs on the Ergo side did exceptionally well. We only had a 4% increase in cash operating costs year on year, and that is solely with regards to this Ergo 2.0.
Going into less sites, less expensive sites, cleanup sites, and then also showing the solar performance in that last six months. Maybe something to mention, Ergo specifically had a 14% decrease year on year on the rand per ton figure, from R222 per ton last year to R190 a ton in the current financial year. On the operating profit, also a very nice trend upwards. Last year, ending up just approximately R1 billion operating profit. This year, approximately R2 billion profit. On the Far West side, as Niël mentioned, stable operation, slightly in a different phase. Far West is in this growth phase, setting up for the phase two operation. Cost profile also slightly different. Only two reclamation sites, and the one in a cleanup phase, so Driefontein 5 in a cleanup phase. Revenue, nice trend upwards. Also star performance, the gold price, obviously.
You can see that last six months not having the significant jump because of that Driefontein 3 make grade that actually declined quite significantly in the last six months. Cash operating costs, stable performance, although they had an 8% year-on-year increase, again, just because of where Far West is in their operating, yeah, we are up in labor resources, getting ready for this growth phase. Maybe something to specifically note on the Far West side, though, rand per kilogram still under R500,000 per kilogram, which is quite an achievement. Operating profit, also nice upwards curve, last year at about R1.1 billion and ending at R1.5 billion for the current financial year. Thank you. Riaan will now take us through the group financial thing.
Speaker 1
Thank you very much, Henriette. Love talking to these chains, as you can imagine. Again, all the hard work now done by Niël and Henriette. Operating margin clearly up significantly with the increase in gold price plus containment of costs. Last year, as a whole, we're looking at 33.4%, now up to 44.7%. Wonderful operating margin. All-in sustaining costs, as you know, that's not a huge focus for us at the moment. It's all around the growth CapEx. That is up 24.3% last year, up to almost 39%. Very, very healthy. On free cash flow, as you know, that's always an important measure for us. I've mentioned to a couple of people, I can assure you, August last year when we did our budgets and forecasts for the year, we didn't imagine that position. It's a very, very healthy position. Free cash flow generated more than R1.2 billion.
Obviously, we'll elaborate on that in the cash flow statements. Headline earnings per share, Niël alluded to that, up 69% period on period, which is significant. We're very proud of that achievement. Going through the three primary statements that I want to talk to. Firstly, the statement of profit and loss. Niël mentioned revenue up 26%. Gold price up 31%, gold sold slightly down 3% period on period. Just under R8 billion of revenue, which is a record for us. Cost of sales, stable, as we talked about, which we're really proud of because that's the number that we manage from a rand-per-ton basis for both operations, only up 7% period on period. That effect, as you know, if you can increase revenue and keep costs stable, that has a 73% increase in gross profit from operating activities at R3.1 billion. Administration expenses and other costs up 7%.
Not unhappy about that at all as well. Finance income, again, yes, lower than last year as predicted, but we didn't forecast, again, that number. We still had some cash balances during the year. We actually forecasted some finance costs, cash finance costs. Still a healthy number. Finance expense, as you've gotten used to the majority of that, the unwinding of our rehabilitation liability period on period. Mostly non-cash, as you would see in the cash flow statement. Profit before tax, wow, over R3 billion. Again, a record for us, which we're very, very proud of. Everyone's favorite topic, or maybe not, is income tax, or in this case, more deferred tax for us. I'll point out in the cash flow statement, all of that move, it's quite a large number related to deferred tax.
As you know, our tax setup has to do with we can accelerate capital allowances against any mining income that we generate. As you know, we've planned a solar project over many years, but what government has done is provide an additional incentive that we can claim 125% of our CapEx spend. Those are the kind of initiatives that I hope government for the mining industry and wider keep on doing because that was not the reason we invested. Clearly, that's the final cherry on the cake for us to also get a tax benefit. You'll see on the balance sheet, deferred tax now is our largest single liability. I'll just briefly talk to that for those that follow that number. Profit for the period at R2.2 billion.
Staying in our financial position, property, plant, and equipment, which we'll hopefully continue to see that trend up 25% year on year as we continue to invest in line with Vision 2028. Non-current investments and other assets, maybe to mention specifically in there, our rehab funds now for the first time over R1 billion that we manage. That's an amazing position to be in. Other investments there, RAND Refinery and others, making up that just under R1.4 billion. Small deferred tax assets, cash and cash equivalents, the R1.3 billion, which we'll analyze on my favorite still primary financial statement, the cash flow statement in a while. Other current assets, stable. Equity, as you know, is simplistically profits, less dividends plus other smaller changes directly through equity. I'm going to pause on provision for environmental rehabilitation. Jaco will touch on this later in slightly more detail.
Do you remember a big theme of our results this year is our change in reserves, change in life-of-mine, responding to where Dhakha Fontaine previously was classified as a reserve and in our life. For us to reclaim that site now is considered a tailings deposition facility. What's really exciting about that is through further work and drilling done on the Crown Tailings Complex, we were able to classify that as a mineral reserve. As you know, that is a very exciting prospect for us from a tonnage point of view, but also just of where it is. In our booklet and I always encourage you to go and read that. We prepare that with great care. As you know, the city of Joburg refers to that as the Corridor of Freedom, sort of the artificial barrier between Soweto and the rest of Joburg.
Just the prospect for us to now plan to mine that in the future is very exciting. We own that land. I mentioned it this morning, obviously, if you're a long-term strategist on property, that is something in the future that will excite, I know, any property development. It's an exciting change. While I mentioned it in rehab liability, you can imagine that our life-of-mine obviously influences how we estimate our rehab liability. Previously, we said we couldn't re-mine ground economically. We spent millions of rand over more than a decade to actually grass that facility. You would have seen it in our dust numbers over the years decreasing. Now we're saying because our intention is to re-mine it in the life-of-mine in our reserves, our estimate changes. We're not going to vegetate that anymore. We're going to re-mine it and then it's final red soil cleanup.
Our change in estimate then needs to provision for environmental rehabilitation as well. You would see a number in the income statement just under R100 million. That was a decrease in that liability. The accounting says, yes, take it to a related asset, which is Crown, but Crown in our books is at zero. We have to take that credit to the income statement. Just to note that move. I mentioned our biggest single liability, just under R1.8 billion, is deferred tax. As I mentioned, for those keen followers of that number, what it essentially means is as we use up our accelerated capital allowances, at some point in the future, our asset will still be there, but our tax base will be zero. We can't claim further deductions. That may be replaced with current tax.
A classic model, which I hope government does more and more of, incentivizes investment, makes the financing of that slightly cheaper, but then the tax is coming if things work out as we've planned. That's what that liability says. There's some future liability in the form of tax as we continue to be profitable based on our forecasts. Current liability is also stable in comparison to last year. The current ratio is slightly up because of our increase in the cash balance year on year. The statement of cash flows. A number that I want to point out is what I believe is the essential financial health of most businesses: cash generated from operations. That number is really beautiful to look at. It almost doubled from last year. It's a very, very healthy number.
As Niël alluded to, yes, influenced, helped by the gold price, but still we have to produce the gold. We have to run the operations efficiently to be able to generate that cash. Finance income is slightly more than we planned with cash balances still on hand. Dividends received from RAND Refinery. Finance expenses, very small cash-wise, mostly for us to keep that facility going, which is from Nedbank, the overall ZAR 2 billion facility, which we have still for four years, which again matches our key or core capital timeframe as we allude to Vision 2028. Income tax, actually quite the opposite, Niël alluded to that. Some refund from source from a previous position. No current tax paid out of the business. Henriette alluded to that number, or Niël as well, ZAR 2.2 billion.
Slightly lower than we would have liked and where we guided previously to the market for various reasons. We'll elaborate a lot on that through what Jaco will present under projects. Maybe the ZAR 3.5 billion that we mentioned, guidance was slightly ambitious with other projects that weren't banked yet for us that we were hoping to get to. Still a very healthy number of CapEx that we spent. Environmental regulation payments, we always allude to that. I believe that is different from most other mining companies that we continue to clear it. Our Brockpoint facility and also Driefontein 4, which reduces our decommissioning liability. That's a number that Niël mentioned in the dividend. It's the ZAR 0.20 final dividend last year and the ZAR 0.30 interim dividend that we paid that comes off the cash flow.
Still a healthy net increase of ZAR 784 million and a very healthy cash balance at the end of June of ZAR 1.3 billion. That's it from the financial side. I'm going to hand over to Jaco Schoeman, our Chief Operating Officer, to take us through some projects.
Speaker 0
Morning, everybody. Thanks for allowing me to present this to you, our Vision 2028. Before I do, I just quickly want to thank the ops team for setting up the business very nicely for us to be able to execute and spend all of that capital. Before I go into the presentation, just what you see on the screen right now, this is the Crown Complex or one of the dams, one of the four making up the cluster on the Crown Complex. A significant resource or reserve now, about 270 million tons. We'll get into the details a little bit later. I think a lot has been spoken about the solar and the base. Let me just give you a little bit of an update on this operation. We commissioned it in November of last year.
What you can see on the screen here, that's about a third of the solar plant. It's about 40,000 panels out of 133,000 panels. As I mentioned, commissioned in November. As we stand here currently, we are achieving 97% to 98% of design capacity, which was important for us, an important number for us. That's also based in the contracts for the operation and maintenance side of things. It also allows or provides the power for the entire Ergo operations in terms of reclamation, the plant, and deposition capacity during the day as from a run from PV. The PV also then charges the batteries. Just to refresh your minds, the PV is 60 megawatts per day and the battery plant is 187 megawatt battery plant. The batteries we use to do arbitraging, discharging during peak periods in the morning and the afternoons.
For that reason, we get about 12 hours of renewable energy consumption in the operations. It's about ZAR 108 million of cost saving up to this point in time, starting off November. Certain sections of this plant were started a lot earlier, but we formally commissioned the entire plant in November, and that's the date that we take it forward from. During this period, from the 1st of November, we have also pushed approximately 42 million kilowatt-hours into the grid, which is being offset and wheeled against our other accounts. Obviously, the carbon footprint, this reduces our current carbon footprint significantly. We have applied for the carbon credits, but that's obviously a process that you need to follow and you need to have a certain period of time completed before that will come to fruition.
Having spoken about the 42 million kilowatt-hours that we've pushed into the grid, we have not received all of those credits from ESCOM as yet. That's a process that needs to be followed. We're in that process and we don't foresee any issues with that, just a process to be followed. Heading into the major capital projects, we talk about the five, the big five capital projects, two of them at Ergo and three at Far West. At Ergo, we'll talk about the Dhakha Fontaine resumption of deposition capacity there, as well as the recommissioning of the Vetok tailings facility. In conjunction with those two, that enables us to then reclaim the Crown Complex, which, as I've mentioned, the 170 million tons at a 0.23 gram per ton head grade. That enables us to extend the life-of-mine of Ergo in excess of 20 years.
What we also want to do with Far West, between Far West and Ergo, Far West will have a much longer life-of-mine than 20 years. At least a minimum of 20-year life-of-mine for both operations. At Far West, we'll quickly go through three projects: expansion on DP2, the construction of the Regional Tailings Storage Facility, or RTSF, as you'll hear me refer to that as well, and the construction of the pipelines linking the Driefontein plant with the RTSF. Just to orientate you, where are these big five projects situated? If we look, if we start at Ergo, this is the Crown Complex, which we referred to just now. Existing infrastructure is in place, but we will have to upgrade some of this infrastructure coming across from Crown to the Elsburg pump station and from there over to the Ergo plant.
Once we've treated it at the Ergo plant, it then obviously goes to the deposition site, which is Brockpoint deposition site. This is Vetok. Vetok is right to the south, buttressing onto the southern side of the Brockpoint tailings there. From there, we go to the Dhakha Fontaine tailings deposition plant, and this is the Marievale cluster. Two major sections being reclaimed or in future, which will be the Marievale cluster and the Crown cluster. For that, we need the deposition capacities on both Dhakha Fontaine and Vetok. Just as a matter of interest, and Henriette, you can correct me if I'm wrong here, but Brockpoint was started in the Brockpoint tailings dam, was started in about 1984. That tailings dam is close to 40 years, 41 years old. It's got approximately 800 million tons on top of it.
For us to take this project forward and extend the life of mine of Ergo for another 20 years, we're going to put some additional deposition capacity in place. If we move to Far West, the three projects we've referred to, the DP2 plant is currently operating at about 500,000 to 510,000 tons a month. That has a nameplate capacity of 600,000 tons. We'll double up on that to take this to 1.2 million tons. It's situated there. From there, we will pump it all the way across to the RTSF, which is situated here. Just to orientate you, it's closer to the town of Fochville. All right. DP2 upgrade, pipelines, and RTSF. Going back to Ergo and the Dhakha Fontaine, as Riaan has mentioned, this was previously in our reserve resource statement. We've taken it out and it's now a deposition site.
It's about 11 kilometers from the Ergo plant. We're constructing a dual pipeline, one being for slurry and one being for return water. Envisaging to put approximately 120 million tons on top of this tailings dam at a deposition rate of 500,000 tons per month. That gives us 20-year life of mine on this tailings dam. What this means is when we take 500,000 tons and deposit it onto the Dhakha Fontaine tailings dam, we can reduce the amount that we need to put onto the Brockpoint tailings dam. Until such stage as we've got the Vetok plant up and running. There's a dual strategy to coming off Vetok. There's a medium to short-term strategy, which is Dhakha Fontaine, longer-term Vetok to come into operation, and then we come off Brockpoint.
We envisage to complete the construction and start the depositing onto Dhakha Fontaine in quarter one of the 2027 financial year. That assists us in our long-term strategy. Just to give you an indication of the pipeline route all the way across from Ergo to Dhakha Fontaine. We utilize the exact same route to access the Mariveld cluster with slurry lines and return water lines. Going on to Vetok tailings dam. Vetok, as I've mentioned to you, is directly south of the Brockpoint tailings dam. That's the Brockpoint tailings dam itself. It's designed to hold approximately 310 million tons of material with a deposition rate of 1.3 million tons per month. Once this is in operation and the Dhakha Fontaine is in operation, we're back onto the 1.8 million ton deposition capacity. It's got more than a 20-year life-of-mine for this facility.
I'm not going to take you through the technical detail. Don't get worried. Essentially, it's designed and we're in the authorization process as we speak to get this dam authorized. We do anticipate that it's going to take us approximately three years before we get onto this tailings dam, before we start commissioning this tailings dam. Hence, as I've mentioned to you, short to medium term, Dhakha Fontaine alleviating some of the pressure onto the Brockpoint tailings dam and then bringing Vetok online. Having Vetok and Dhakha Fontaine will then enable us to bring Mariveld and the Crown Complex into operation. Moving across to Far West, the DP2 plant, as I've mentioned to you, the DP2 plant currently has got a nameplate capacity of 600,000 tons. We're doubling up on that. That's where you can see the CIL circuit coming up online there.
I'll go to the next slide, which will give you better views and comparisons just now. What we will feed, so in total, we'll have 1.2 million ton feed through the DP2 plant. That'll be fed by two tailings dams, one being Driefontein 3 and the Libanon tailings dam. We envisage to complete this by Q1 of the 2026-2027 financial year. Now a slide that myself and Kevin particularly like. Everything you see that's in teal color, those colors there, that is existing. That's the existing plant where we're putting about 500,000 tons per month through that plant. Everything else in other colors is part of the expansion of DP2 plant. What you'll see here, obviously, CIL circuit, you've got the smelt house situated here. A big portion of what we're doing here is moving the chemicals out of the plant into a dedicated area.
This allows us to do two things. Firstly, it's concentrated where you've got easy access and logistics. Secondly, this section of the plant is then outside of your high security area. Therefore, you can separate the in and out and logistics from a security perspective. Also, a second Cigner being installed in operation. From an engineering and design perspective, we are 99% complete. Our procurement packages are 94% complete. Fabrication and supplies at this point in time are 65% complete. Our construction, we're sitting at about 30%. The timeline for this is Q1 2027, full commissioning. Just some update on photographs to give you an idea of progress. This was the Cigner as well as the receiving section and the tail section where we're putting the pump station on in December 2024. This is in July.
Important, this is what we require for the pumping of material all the way from the DP2 plant through the pipelines onto the RTSF. A very important section of this plant. This has to be in operation by Q1 2027. What you'll see here is the second Cigner. In March, nothing there, essentially just earthworks. I think they had to drop down something like five meters to start building up that concrete. There you can see already the construction of the civil works on the Cigner. CIL area, this is now obviously the second stream. We've got an existing 600,000 tons. This is the second stream of the bases of the CIL circuit. There you can already see the tanks coming up as well as some of the additional infrastructure. In the background, you can see the, I think there's a next picture on there. That's the gold room.
At this point in time, sorry, that's something I forgot to mention. The DP2 plant doesn't have existing its own gold room or elution facilities. All of that is being done through the DP1 plant as well as NITE. We're constructing as part of the expansion phase, our own gold room and elution circuit that will be able to handle that 1.2 million tons per month. This is the gold room section area as well as the elution. You can see in the background the reagent area. There you can see the gold room coming up, some of the elution circuits, the CIL circuit there, and then the chemical handling area or reagents area to the right. RTSF. I think this is one of the biggest projects we have definitely launched and a very interesting project. This will be the second super dump.
Maybe before I go into some of the details here, the idea is that all of the resources or all of the tailings dams that have been scattered around the Vetotes Rant area will be consolidated into two main tailings deposition facilities. The one being Vetok Brockpoint on the east for Ergo and then the RTSF on the west. As I've mentioned to you, Brockpoint already has 800 million tons on top of it. We intend to put another 300 million tons onto the Vetok side of things, which is 1.1 billion tons of tailings on that side. This facility is designed for 800 million tons at a deposition rate of 2.4 million tons per month eventually. That's not where we're going to go right now. I'll take you through some of that now. It's got more than a 30-year life-of-mine. There's two timeframes to this.
The first one is the most important one, which is what we're aiming to get beneficial occupation by Q1 of 2027. That means that the tailings dam will still be in construction whilst we start using it from the southern side. The tailings dam is sloped at an angle. Obviously, we'll start using the lower section of that. All of that will be prepared to ensure that we can start depositioning on that. I think I'll venture to say that this is possibly the largest tailings dam constructed on a liner, definitely in South Africa, maybe even in the southern hemisphere. I don't know about another tailings dam that's this big. We'll give you some of the photographs just now and take you through some of the detail. Before I go there, the tailings list starts at the top. The starter wall, some detail on that.
This is the lowest part of the starter wall. It's 11 kilometers in circumference. It's 100 meters wide, 16 meters high at this point. It's built in 300 millimeter layers and compacted. We can take you through a lot of detail on that. It's quite a significant construction that's taking place. The inside of the tailings dam, here we refer to Grab and Grab. The entire section of the entire basin of the tailings dam, you recover material from and will be lined. There you can see the starting of the liner. You have to prepare the base of that liner prior to actually starting to line it itself. This is the decant system or the pool wall, part of the decant system that's already constructed. It's not a landing strip. We have warned Mr. Pretorius not to land his airplane there. This is just part of the decanting system.
The starter wall, as I've mentioned, we've got various drains. I'm not going to take you through the radial drains and the intermediate drains and so forth. All of the water from the tailings dam, you collect in return water dams. There's four of them, two at the bottom here and two at the top, which is off the picture. I'll give you an indication of the size. If you just have a look at the size of these tailings dams, I think Niël made the comment the other day that the Topstar tailings dam could have possibly fitted into these return water dams to give you an idea of the size of these things. If you look at the picture now and you look at the size of this and I go to the design, that's what I'm referring to. That's the size of those return water dams.
For beneficial occupation, we require stage of the embankment, stage one, two, and three. We require that and we require the basin stage one and two for beneficial occupation. To give you an update on where we are with those, on the embankment stage one, 87%, 260%, and 356% complete. The basin itself, section one, 88% and section two, 45%. The return water dams, we're approximately 40% complete on the return water dams at the bottom. I mentioned that there's return water dams at the top. Those are the two return water dams at the top. Obviously, the decant barge will pump into those return water dams. The water collected from the drainage system in the bottom tailings dams, our return water dams will be pumped to the top ones. From here, we return water all the way back to reclamation sites.
We have not, as you can see, we have not started with the slurry distribution system. The drainage system is about approximately 15% complete. On the liner, taking into consideration section one and two, we require approximately 3 million square meters of liner for beneficial occupation. We're approximately 16% complete at this point in time. The final design is about 8.5 to 9 million square meters requirement and 6% complete on that. Connecting DP2 and the Regional Tailings Storage Facility (RTSF) will be the pipelines. The pipeline route itself is approximately 32 kilometers. That will consist of two residue pipelines, a return water pipeline, and a slurry pipeline, obviously, from Libanon. In total, 135 kilometers of piping being installed. On that, we're approximately 44% complete. We've got 60% of that already in place. Some of the major other things required is we're crossing the N12 highway or underneath it.
That has been done and completed. We've got two out of three provincial road crossings completed, three out of three district crossings completed, and seven out of nine internal road crossings already completed. Those are the ones that normally in the construction of pipelines give us serious issues. We're well advanced with road crossings for installation of this pipe. Obviously, for us to be utilizing the DP2 plant and beneficial occupation of the Regional Tailings Storage Facility, this needs to be completed by Q1 of financial year 2027. I'm going to hand back to Mr. Pretorius.
Speaker 1
Thanks, Jaco. Thank you very much, Jaco. It's a little different compared to where it was. You know, in my first 15 years in this position, I don't think I ever spoke about a capital project in excess of R350 million. I think Ergo initially was R360 million. I think the capital at Far West Gold Recoveries initially was R320 million, thereabouts. It's a completely different scale. I simply just do not have the technical insight to explain it the way that Jaco did. I think now you have a very good idea of where we're going, how far we've progressed, what's lying ahead of us. I think our team is just doing an incredibly good job there. Where's this going to put us in the context of share price performance? Obviously, the gold price has been very, very good to us.
Our share price has responded not quite as steeply as some of our peers in South Africa. I think Harmony and Pan have done exceptionally well this year. It also coincided with some of their expansion programs. We saw what they were experiencing in 2021, 2022, when the market started factoring in the impact of Far West Gold Recoveries operations and the output there, combined at the time with a stellar performance from Ergo when it started bringing in some of the City Deep sites, the area around the City Deep plant.
The story that we're telling the market, and that's why we're going into the kind of detail that we are at this point in time, is that at some point or another in the future, in the not-too-distant future, as we start hitting some of these milestones, and we'll show you the pictures every time that we do a presentation like this, we do believe that the market will hopefully start taking more comfort in our ability of actually executing on this program. 150,000 ounces at $1,500 per ounce, with a CapEx outflow of between $110 million and $150 million per year in terms of cash flow, compared to no longer spending all of that CapEx, producing 200,000 ounces per annum. You saw what the cost per ton would look like during that period.
You're getting a sense of what the quality of your body looks like, the revenue per ton. I think the market may potentially start factoring in those numbers. When they'll start anticipating it, because you don't buy a share today because of what you think it's worth today. You buy a share or you sell a share today because of what you think it's going to be worth at some point in the future. That's certainly how I'm planning my own investment strategy going forward. We do believe that this could be a very significant factor in terms of how our stock is interpreted and the value that it offers going forward. I'm very pleased.
I'm very glad, relieved rather, that I'm involved in managing a mine and not managing a portfolio on behalf of clients because I think it's tough to make those calls because you've got so many things that you need to consider. I'm hoping that this gives you some sort of an idea of what it is that we're busy with and how it will change the construct of the business, both in terms of output and in terms of earning potential, earning capacity. We're very pleased with the progress that we're seeing. We're also very pleased with how it's being recognized by, and this is not happening on a political stage. This is happening at a different level in the officialdom. We're very pleased with how this is being interpreted increasingly by some of the government's officials that we are dealing with. We're seeing this with the DMRE.
We're seeing this with the Department of Water Affairs. In 2024, whenever we presented, we were bleating about being late and licenses and so forth, and it was a frustrating period of time. If you spoke to Kevin about where he needs to put in these pipelines, what the licenses are that he requires and where they are, then you'll see that we're actually ahead of the game in that regard as well. The kind of communication and the collaboration that we're also experiencing with DMRE, with the Department of Water Affairs, is chalk and cheese. We're talking to different people. Not different people, different people, but we're just talking to... It's a different mindset. It's a different, completely different experience. That's exciting because Riaan made the point of how the tax regime has facilitated it.
We're standing on South Africa all the time, especially when we lose against the Aussies. We just beat ourselves down. The fact of the matter is that there's still a lot of good things happening. If you keep the politicians out of the room, there's still a lot of good things happening, and we're experiencing some of that. We can see how there's growing excitement on a broad spectrum about what's starting to happen here. Yes, I think we're pleased that we are sort of holding our own in terms of share price performance. We did start sort of aligning with some of our peers in the industry in the recent past. I think there was doubt last year and the year before in terms of both our ability to perform and also in terms of our capacity to actually deliver on some of these projects.
Hopefully, as I say, as confidence grows, we'll start offering better reward to our shareholders going forward. It's still the only stock that I own in terms of my own little sort of dabbling in the market, the money that I manage on my own savings. With regards to sustainable development performance, you know that this has been an integral part of our thinking. We brought this into, we call it the golden wire that informs our strategic thinking, how do we facilitate and how do we create value, integrated value, overlapping value over five different capital stocks. This is really starting to contribute significantly also to the financial bottom line. It lends a robustness, a resilience to the business, especially considering where it is that we are conducting our business in built-up areas and so forth. These were the 10-year trends that I spoke about.
This is not by coincidence. It's not by coincidence that you see this trend in terms of electricity consumption. It's not coincidental that you see this in terms of potable water usage. We set ourselves a target, once again, when I talk nowadays and I say a few years ago, it's Henriette, it's 15, 18 years ago, if I'm not mistaken, that we set ourselves the target of reducing potable water usage by 10% every year. This is where we've ended up. It's not just because it's the right thing to do from a nature capital perspective. If you want to do business in South Africa and water is such an important part of your operational, of your flow, then you need access to water.
At some point or another, and Jaco and I had the conversation this morning, if you're going to open the tap, it's going to be dry because we've allowed our potable water infrastructure to lag. It's not being looked after. We now source most of the water that we use. 95% of the processed water that we use, we source from either underground, this massive lake below Johannesburg that was opened up over the last century and a bit, and also from other greywater sources. Environmental spend, that slide talks to itself. Echter's vegetated, I do not think, I have certainly not seen another active tailings facility that is vegetated to the extent that our Brakpan and Driefontein tailings facilities are vegetated. It's what we call concurrent rehabilitation.
Riaan made the point that when the revenue, when there's no revenue, the costs are over because then you've basically built it into your cash operating cost profile so that as this thing gets higher, it gets cladded, it gets vegetated, and you don't pose a dust nuisance and you're 90% towards closure. 520 hectares vegetated on TSF. I recall a number also five, six years ago. We've been a dividend-paying company for that period of time. There was a time when the amount of money that we had spent on the vegetation of Crown and on the cladding and the vegetation of Brakpan, and Brakpan basically vegetates itself because it's cladded natural soil, where that exceeded the dividends that we had paid out.
That was our unqualified value proposition to our shareholders at the time: yes, there is a dividend, but this dividend takes place in the context of a particular standard of environmental governance, which is important if you want to do business in Johannesburg because the communities have been getting closer and closer and closer to our tailings dams, both officially and unofficially. A different standard was required. We anticipated that, and that work was done, and it's continuing. This old lady, Brakpan, here since 1984, she is in her final phase. We're systematically reducing the volume deposition onto that tailings dam. She's played her part in cleaning up Johannesburg and the Johannesburg landscape, but she is extensively vegetated. She's not going to become the problem that is posed by all of the other dams that we are reclaiming and reprocessing and depositing onto that tailings dam.
She will be part of the environmental solution as opposed to the environmental problem. Ultimately, it all boils down to quality of life and societal capital. Right. Just in terms of our social performance, I'm not going to be spending too much time on this. It's really ultimately a case of numbers. The amount of money that you spend on these things, I think, is indicative on just the sort of commitment that you have. The one thing that I do want to say, though, is if you read through our integrated report, and our finance team with the assistance of the rest of the team make sure that what you read is actually what's happening. It's an applied document. If you read through that, then.
Speaker 6
Most of our social development programs are social capital, so to speak. Very few of those are in the form of some sort of a large capital project. We have those from time to time, and Wayne Adelaide can elaborate on those in terms of, I know that there's a clinic in the pipeline and there's some additions to school facilities and so forth. Our philosophy here, once again, is sustainable sustainability, if you'll allow the term. That basically means that you do not create a culture of dependency. It's a knowledge and a nudge. This is information that you can use. This is knowledge that you can use to get yourself out of abject poverty. If you do demonstrate the sort of initiative that's required, then there might be a bit of a nudge in terms of the availability of capital. These programs have been really, really good.
We go to where the actual need is. The amount of pride that we see coming out of those, it's nice to see. Of course, you have your green shoots as well. Some of these broad-based livelihood agricultural participants now supply big chain stores like Pick and Pay and so forth. Right, in terms of looking ahead, we do have our guidance here. I made mention of the fact that our operations are now in an interim construction phase. You'll see slightly more modest throughput, slightly lower grades until such time as we get those throughput numbers back up again when Jaco and Kevin have the infrastructure in place. I can hand it over to Henriette and he can really have a full-on go in terms of volume throughput. At the moment, we're throttling it.
There you see what it is that we're guiding in terms of output for the year. Sort of 150 is what the design facilitates. 140 is if it rains for six months. It's really ultimately sort of dependent on do we get the tons through the plant. Plants are running well. They're being really well managed. I think we understand the methodology of our product is when you don't get that blend 100% right, you start seeing volatility in terms of those numbers. Dhakha Fontaine is an important milestone for us to resume deposition onto Dhakha Fontaine. To get that 500,000 tonne a month capacity and to bring down the amount of material that we deposit onto the Brakpan Tailings facility. In terms of Far West Gold Recoveries, as you can see, Jaco's put that pun in the calendar, first quarter financial 2027.
We'll ask him to come back and talk to you again and tell you where he is in that regard. These are complex projects, but they are fascinating projects. They are being exceptionally well managed, and it's nice to see the progress every time you go there. Then something else has been done, something else is happening. At the threshold of the next phase of this old lady, I said earlier this year at the function, when we celebrated 130 years of existence, hopefully we'll get to 150 years. As you can see, the structure here is one that will facilitate something that will get us close to that milestone. Of course, what's really wonderful is the tone and the content of these presentations are now changing.
In the past, what we spoke about really was reactive risk management and how we sort of reorganized the business and how we moved away from underground and into tailings, etc., etc. Now you're seeing something completely different. In the past, it was how we refurbished old infrastructure. Now you're seeing how we're taking on really large projects to build something new. That is really a new business that's been built, and it's part of our commitment to this whole notion, the idea of optimizing our old body, optimizing our resources. This is really the slide that summarizes it all, Sustainably Gold. It tells you the story of how sustainable development has found its way into the thinking of this team and how it's being executed at all of these different levels. I think there's good overlap.
The one delivers into the other, and it's contributing towards the resilience and the robustness of this business. Where else do you see this? There's one float, Tailings Dam, and in the background, there's Johannesburg. Hopefully, Johannesburg will also start a process of cleaning itself out, up and cleaning itself, because there's so much. There's so much to fight for. Ladies and gents, that's our story for today. We're going to take some questions. I know that there have been a few questions. I'll allocate the questions to my colleagues if you'll join us here at the table, please. Thank you, Jane. I can just scroll through it. It's always the first one. Good stuff. Thank you, Jane. The first question, I'll take the first question if you don't mind. It's from Lisa Stein. The draft mining board proposes bringing historical tailings under the mining rights regime.
What is DRDGOLD's view on this proposal and how it might impact the company? Most of our resources, most of the dumps that we're mining, we hold under mining rights. Some of those are environmental authorizations. That notwithstanding, we are pointing out to the department in the submission that we made in response to the publication of the draft board that there may be some unintended consequences with regards to infrastructure. For example, if you look at Dhakha Fontaine, Dhakha Fontaine fits the description of a historic mine dump. If we don't bring an application for Dhakha Fontaine within two years after the enactment, does that now mean that somebody can bring an application for a mining right over Dhakha Fontaine? That's an absurdity. I don't think the legislature had that kind of absurdity in mind. That's something that we've pointed out.
I think the officials that we've spoken to and certainly the Minerals Council have spoken to, they seem to have crossed that point that there are some unintended consequences if you were to remove ownership of dumps. If you want to take that component away and bring it in a dispensation that essentially is designed for virgin minerals, it looks as though they're leaning towards a system rather of classification or certification rather of mining them so that you notify the department that you have these dumps on your footprint and so forth. We think that ultimately there'll be a pragmatic solution for that. There certainly seems to be a willingness to consult on the matter. Right. There's another question with regards to capital expenditure. You'd originally forecast to spend R3.5 billion in financial 2025, yet you only spend R2.25 billion.
Does this say something about your ability to forecast or your ability to spend? This delta does not seem to affect your beneficial occupation timetables. What is your 2026 forecast, CapEx forecast? I think what we've decided to do, Riaan, is to rather have a medium-term forecast. I think in that R3.5 billion, there was also about half a billion for projects not related to Vision 2028 that we decided not to do. If you maybe wanted to either yourself or to our other esteemed colleagues to maybe comment on the ability to forecast or the ability to spend. Maybe I'll comment. Henriette can add. We're really trying to spend this as fast as we can.
Yeah, I think maybe the odd is if that we, as Jaco mentioned, and we know the rain in the third quarter, that made it difficult for us to go onto that site and maybe spend as quickly as we would have liked to. I know there's plans in place to catch that up. What we're forecasting for next year, although we don't want to do that as a distinct forecast and rather focus on the Vision 2028 capital, is a significant amount of capital. We're really trying to spend that as quickly as we can. You're right, Niël. In that R3.5 billion was about R500 million of things that we wanted to do outside of Vision 2028 that maybe didn't realize. Yes, slightly behind RTSF. I don't know if you want to expand on that, Henriette.
Speaker 1
Yeah, I think we were a bit optimistic maybe on the DP2 side as well from a forecasting point of view. There's nothing to worry about from a timeline. I do think this distinct period for projects that run over three years is actually a dangerous thing. That's why we have decided to do a bit of a longer-term forecast with regards to Vision 2028.
Speaker 6
Yes, and I think the point being that we're not pushing out the beneficial occupation dates, etc. We haven't adjusted the target timetable for this. It's turning out to be harder to spend money than one would think. Because there are leading lag times, you've got to put in these orders, etc. We bought most of the pipelines that we require and so forth. You can spend as quickly as you can execute. The next question involves the solar farm and the $108 million saving that we recognize for this year. There's a question about the depreciation charge. If there is an answer to that, is there a depreciation charge this year and how much is that? While you consider that, there's also a question with regards to what is the issue with regards to ESCOM and why is this process taking so long?
I think what we realized with ESCOM was there was initially an assumption with regards to what could be offset and what could be wheeled. There was a distinction drawn and also an assumption with regards to some of the tariffs that would be recognized in that regard. That turned out to be a far more complex process than I think that we'd anticipated. At some stage, we were getting a little nervous. When is this going to be recognized? Why is it that we're making these submissions and then the only response that we're getting is silence? There was a high-level meeting not long ago, about three weeks ago, where an official that has the authority to actually commit ESCOM contractually, a very, very senior official, had given a very specific undertaking with regards to the date from which wheeling charges would be recognized.
Also, gave very, very clear directives in terms of the signing of the supply agreements. I think at the time, three had already been signed. Are there seven? Are there five? Okay, so there are five of which three had been signed. Also the tariffs that we'd be entitled to claim. We were pleased when we got that undertaking because it means that we don't have to... The conversation going forward is not whether DRDGOLD has a claim to be reimbursed for the 40-odd gig of electricity that had gone into the grid. It's not whether we're entitled to have an offset, but rather from when, so what the initial date is. It's a matter of what is the tariff that is going to be recognized. I think that conversation is ongoing as well.
We've taken a view on it, which has been brought into the provision, which I think was a responsible view because Riaan and Henriette and their team were instrumental in deciding that. Yes, I think we're at the tail end of the ESCOM issue and the 95% of the uncertainty that existed has finally been dealt with. It is a complex issue. I think ESCOM also only has so many resources. One also needs to be sensitive to that. Riaan, if you want to talk to the depreciator.
Speaker 2
Sure. Thanks, Niël. As you know, in IAS 16, probably on equipment, it's the standard we deal with to come up with depreciation. Lots of judgment required. What we've come up with for the solar panels essentially is a 25-year life and for the battery around 20 years. Again, judgment required. It's quite difficult to say how long something would last. Jaco can elaborate on that. We've only been using the battery for a short period of time. The depreciation charge, that charge kicked in from November last year when we started using the plant. You can do that sum if you take a full year, roughly up to ZAR 120 million to ZAR 150 million of depreciation. What I really like about the standard, it tells you to reassess and reestimate every year. This is a classic example, depending on how you use the battery.
If you use it more, clearly its life essentially will be shorter. We've done a straight line at the moment. In theory, maybe a usage is better, but we're still learning a lot around how to use the battery. Like I say, experts tell us we need 12 to 18 months of information to really optimize. We're working in that process. We're very proud of that benefit of ZAR 108 million, which we've already seen. We've done a lot of work to understand the position. It'll be ongoing. The beauty is the infrastructure is there. It's been built. Jaco said it's working. We're confident that also the actual credits and arrangements of ESCOM will formally kick in and be optimized going forward. Niël, that's a high-level summary of the depreciation.
Speaker 6
Whilst the whole question about depreciation is a very important question, I'd be surprised if we don't get asked questions about that. Just keep in mind that if you look at the risk register of most mining companies in South Africa, those who pay attention to their reality, to their environment, you will see electricity availability, security of electricity, and electricity supply very high up on those risk registers. DRDGOLD had that at its number two highest risk a few years ago when the decision was taken to implement this project and to build the solar farm. It's a question of availability of electricity, a question of cost of electricity, and a question of quality of electricity.
What I can say to you is that I don't think that we would have been able to get our investment committee and the board across the line, or at least have the support that we have from them, if for the Ergo extension, for Ergo two—I spoke to you earlier about how you've got to do that calculation on revenue per ton and cost per ton—if we didn't introduce or bring about the certainty in supply, the certainty in cost, and the certainty in quality around electricity, we wouldn't have been able to get that across the line if we hadn't been able to do that. The only way to do that was the solar.
Remember, when we decided that we're going to go the route of further extending Ergo and not closing it down, we didn't first build the plant and then build the tailings and then the pipelines and only then the solar. We started with solar first because if there's one part of this business that you could sell and that you could run independently of mining, it's a solar farm. This thing has its own value. It has embedded or intrinsic value. It doesn't need the mine. The mine needs Teta, needs the solar farm. Solar farm doesn't need the mine. Jaco?
Speaker 2
If I can just add onto that, I'm not going to get into the calculation about because that I can't do in terms of depreciation, but the basis of that, we must remember that there's a degradation curve on both the solar, the batteries, and the PV that is backed up in the agreements. That's the basis of that, a specific degradation curve.
Speaker 6
Thank you, Jaco. Right then. The next question that we have is, can we talk a little bit about some of the latest mineral resource, so the development bill I think I've spoken about? Maybe just to sort of in broad terms, the mining industry, both ourselves and through the Minerals Council, there are certain principles and certain aspects of that that the mining industry is very firm about. Paul Dunham in the meeting, AGM of the Minerals Council, made it very clear to the minister that there are certain points that we're very firm about. As an industry, we've decided to constructively engage and consult with government to point out what the effects are of some of the clauses that they've proposed to introduce. Government's agreed to engage with us at the same time. There's a patient that's been made.
In fact, there's another call later this afternoon that I'll be participating in where the implications are being discussed. We're giving engagement and consultation a go, and we're hoping for a good outcome. If that doesn't work, obviously the benefit of living in a constitutional democracy is that you have recourse, you have legal recourse. I'm going to go to the next one. There's a question as to when do we propose to start reclaiming the Crown Complex dumps and over what period of time? What is the due date for that roughly at this stage if we have fixed a specific date?
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's about in four years' time from now, Niël.
Speaker 6
Okay. The area, if I'm not mistaken, Henriette, is about 500 hectares, so just over 500 hectares. The Crown Complex.
Speaker 0
The answer is about 500.
Speaker 6
That we own. We own about 1,000 hectares in that area. That, of course, is the area right between Suretho and Naswick on either side of the highway. It's definitely prime land. All right, these are the questions that we got in terms of those who dialed in remotely. Are there any questions from the audience? Thank you, Ed.
Speaker 4
Sorry. Thanks. Ed Stoddart with the Daily Maverick. Just your new super, the second super dam that's going up. I'm just wondering two things. One is I'm wondering, do you expect to have some wildlife around there as well, like you have around Brock Pan? The second thing I want to ask, I'm thinking of my Canadian English. I'm just trying to do the translation now. Dhakha Fontaine. It means cannabis fountain. I'm wondering, does that suggest something about the agricultural projects that you plan around there? Sorry. Thanks.
Speaker 6
Yeah. It's like you're looking into my retirement, Ed. I'm telling my colleagues that I'm going to start smoking again when I'm 75, and I intend to smoke my own bread. Maybe that's where I'll go. Jaco, were you saying something here?
Speaker 2
The intention is eventually there will be wildlife, but not immediately. I can't comment on Dhakha Fontaine. We do have some agricultural projects, yes. It's got nothing to do with Dhakha.
Speaker 6
Thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 3
Hi. Good day, everyone. Bruce Williamson, Integral Asset Management. Maybe a question for Riaan. Can you just update me on now that you've also got the solar there, the tax ring fences around your specific operations, and maybe what the unredeemed balances are there?
Speaker 6
Sure. The unredeemed balances, I'll need help on. I don't know if you're close to that, but maybe before that. The ring fences are Ergo as a whole. The theory there says because all of the related infrastructure needs the tailings dam. We do, from a tax point of view and the way SARS looks at it, as a complete ring fence. In that operation, because of the dependence on one tailings dam, we do see that as one ring fence and a similar argument for Far West. We go through that very carefully through tax advice to make sure that our position is supported. That is the idea, that it's not separate. We don't consider separate ring fences because it is an integrated system that we look at.
Similar to the solar, the way we look at both the solar panels related to infrastructure and the battery system, we do see that operating as an integrated system, which it is designed to do. As I've mentioned on that, we have tax advice that we can claim as a system the 125% as allowed by the incentives by government. I don't know if you're close to the unredeemed capital balance, please. Thanks.
Speaker 5
We do have unredeemed CapEx as of 30 June on both Ergo and Far West. You're sitting at about ZAR 600 million for both.
Speaker 3
Maybe just on your cost inputs, sort of labor, power, chemicals, other procurement, can you just give me an idea of what you're experiencing with cost increases?
Speaker 6
Yes, I'll ask Henriette to maybe comment on that. She's very close to our budgeting process. I can give you sort of rough numbers, but she'll get you a lot closer to the actuals.
Speaker 1
On the Ergo side, looking at a changing operation, stable from a labor point of view. Where we're seeing decreases is basically on our reclamation contractors, and it's because we're not tracking material from everywhere. That is a much more stable profile going forward. Electricity will have a few full-year benefits. On the Far West side, again, stable operation with a growth factor. With quarter one, financial year 2027 around the corner, you'll see labor increases to actually start that plant. I think that is basically the rest; it's inflationary increases.
Speaker 6
Anybody else? That seems to be it. Thank you again so much. Thank you for attending. It was an absolute privilege to present to you and also to introduce you to the members of our team. Most of our Senior Management members are here, and we're going to be around for a while. Please feel free to chat to them and ask them what you want to ask. Thank you so much.