DRDGOLD Limited (JSE: DRD) reported revenue of R11 159.0 million for the year ended 30 June 2026, up 42% from R7 878.2 million, and declared a final cash dividend of 120 SA cents per ordinary share against 40 SA cents the year before. Operating profit rose 83% to R6 452.0 million from R3 523.6 million, and headline earnings per share rose 89% to 491.9 SA cents from 260.6 SA cents. BDO South Africa Inc. reviewed the condensed consolidated financial statements and expressed an unmodified review conclusion.
The company recovers gold from surface tailings rather than from underground ore, so its output depends on how much old material it can move and how much metal that material still holds. Both numbers barely changed. Gold production was 4 839kg, or 155 577oz, against 4 830kg. Gold sold was 4 865kg, or 156 413oz, against 4 818kg and 154 902oz. Tonnage throughput fell to 25 069 947t from 25 613 338t, and average yield rose to 0.193g/t from 0.189g/t.
Where the 42% came from
The revenue increase is a price event. The average gold price received rose 40% to R2 289 250/kg from R1 632 275/kg, and in dollars 51% to US$4 218/oz from US$2 797/oz. Gold sold rose 1%. In dollar terms revenue was US$661.1 million against US$434.1 million, a 52% increase, because the rand strengthened over the year to an average of 16.88 rand to the dollar from 18.15.
That currency move runs through the cost lines in the opposite direction to the usual pattern for a South African miner. Cash operating costs were 7% higher in rand at R967 523/kg but 15% higher in dollars at US$1 783/oz. All-in sustaining costs were 8% higher at R1 078 068/kg and 16% higher at US$1 986/oz. Group cash operating costs in absolute terms were R4 712.4 million against R4 372.7 million. Because the price outran the costs by a wide margin, the operating profit margin rose to 57.8% from 44.7% and the all-in sustaining cost margin to 53.0% from 38.8%.
The company had flagged the range on 13 August 2026 under paragraph 6.26(a) of the JSE Listings Requirements, which obliges an issuer to publish a trading statement once it is reasonably certain results will differ by at least 20% from the prior period. It guided to earnings per share between 481.4 cents and 507.4 cents and headline earnings per share between 481.2 cents and 507.2 cents. Both outcomes landed inside those ranges, at 492.1 cents and 491.9 cents.
Cash, capital and the dividend
Free cash flow, defined by the company as cash inflow from operating activities less cash outflow from investing activities, was 85% higher at R2 266.5 million against R1 227.8 million, after group tax paid of R489.1 million compared with a R25.7 million credit the year before. Cash applied to capital, mostly growth capital, was R3 531.6 million against R2 254.9 million. Dividends paid rose 81% to R779.3 million from R431.0 million. Cash and cash equivalents ended 112% higher at R2 770.0 million against R1 306.2 million, and the group remained debt-free.
The final dividend is declared out of income reserves. The local dividend withholding tax rate is 20%, so the net local amount is 96 SA cents for shareholders liable to pay it and 120 SA cents for those exempt. DRDGOLD has 867 397 699 ordinary shares in issue with no treasury shares. The last date to trade cum-dividend is Tuesday, 8 September 2026, shares trade ex-dividend from Wednesday, 9 September 2026, the record date is Friday, 11 September 2026 and payment is on Monday, 14 September 2026. Assuming an exchange rate of 16.00 rand to the dollar, the net dividend on an American Depositary Receipt is equivalent to 60 United States cents per share for holders liable to pay the tax.
Vision 2028 at the halfway mark
The capital number is the one the results release exists to contextualise. Vision 2028 is a four-year, R10 billion capital investment intended to lift combined throughput at Ergo and Far West Gold Recoveries from 2.15 million to 3 million tonnes a month and annual gold production toward approximately 6 tonnes by 2028. Just over R5 billion has been spent, mostly on the DP2 plant expansion and the Regional Tailings Storage Facility at FWGR, and in the year under review on the Daggafontein tailings storage facility at Ergo.
Daggafontein received first water on 25 June 2026 and first tailings deposition on 6 July 2026, cutting deposition onto the maturing Brakpan facility from 1.65Mtpm toward 900ktpm. The new elution circuit and smelt house at DP2 were commissioned on 14 July 2026 and poured gold the same day. RTSF construction was around 67% complete at the end of FY2026 and the pipeline network linking DP2, RTSF and the Libanon reserves approximately 95% complete. A Water Use Licence for the Libanon reclamation pump station came through from the Department of Water and Sanitation in July 2026.
One project slipped. Test drilling at the proposed Withok tailings site at Ergo found geological features requiring measures beyond the standard liner, adding approximately six months to construction and moving the target completion to the end of 2029, assuming approvals by December 2026. The company sized the near-term effect at 150 000 tonnes per month of throughput, with Ergo otherwise holding at 1.65 million tonnes per month, and the long-term effect as more serious: Withok supplies 310 million tonnes of the 430 million tonnes Ergo’s future mine plans require, against the 120 million tonnes Daggafontein provides, and Ergo would have to start reducing throughput by 2030 without it.
Analysis: a price year, converted into plant
Two facts sit next to each other and explain the whole year. Gold sold rose 1%. Revenue rose 42%. Everything above the line came from the gold price, and nothing came from the operation doing more work. Tonnage actually fell. This is the position a tailings retreatment business is in by design: it processes a fixed inventory of old material at a low grade, so its earnings gear directly to price with almost no volume response.
What distinguishes this year from a simple windfall is where the money went. Cash applied to capital of R3 531.6 million exceeded free cash flow of R2 266.5 million, and dividends of R779.3 million were paid on top, yet cash still more than doubled and no debt was raised. The company is roughly halfway through a R10 billion programme, funding it from a price cycle rather than from a balance sheet, and the dividend rose 200% while that was happening. The order of magnitude is worth holding: the capital spend in a single year was larger than the total dividends paid in this year and last combined.
The cost lines carry the caution. Rand costs rose 7% and 8% on flat production, so unit costs are drifting up before the new throughput arrives. The dollar cost increases of 15% and 16% show how much of the reported margin depends on the exchange rate as well as the metal price. A reader wanting to know whether Vision 2028 works has to separate two things the FY2026 accounts cannot separate: how much of the margin is the plant and how much is the price.
The Withok deferral is the specific item to track, because it is the only disclosed constraint on the throughput target the whole programme is built around. What a careful reader would look at next is the FY2027 tonnage line rather than the revenue line, since throughput is the variable Vision 2028 is meant to change, and the Department of Water and Sanitation approvals the company says it needs by December 2026.
