Niël Pretorius has two decades of experience in the mining industry. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer designate of DRDGOLD Limited on 21 August 2008 and Chief Executive Officer on 1 January 2009. Niël also serves as an elected Board representative of the Minerals Council South Africa.

Niël initially joined the Company on 1 May 2003 as a legal adviser and was promoted to the position of Group Legal Counsel on 1 September 2004 and then General Manager: Corporate Services on 1 April 2005. Niël was subsequently appointed Chief Executive Officer of Ergo Mining Operations (formerly DRDGOLD SA) on 1 July 2006.

He has been instrumental in implementing several corporate social investment strategies and environmental, educational and rehabilitation policies during his tenure, in line with the Company’s strategy to deploy its resources to maximise economic value through sustainable and responsible mining, while releasing land back to the greater Johannesburg
for redevelopment.

One of the Company’s key objectives is to generate a financial return for shareholders by maintaining healthy cash flows. This focus on cash flow has enabled the Company to preserve the value created for stakeholders in the form of dividends for 15 uninterrupted years, making a total distribution of 60 SA cents per share for FY2022.

Under his leadership, DRDGOLD was nominated as the Sunday Times Top 100 Company in South Africa in 2020. DRDGOLD has been ranked in the top 14 companies over the last five years