some basic gold reasearch..

I was keen to see what might have attracted DRD's interest sufficiently to have them buying 14% odd of the stock.

For those that haven't looked.

- EMP's principle gold asset is Vatukoula mine in Fiji.
- Gold earns 7.5% of Fiji's foreign exchange
- EMP is Fiji's largest private sector employer.
- In 68 years of operation Vatulouka has produced 6.5 million ounces and still contains a resource of 3.5 million ounces including a reserve of 1 million ounces.
- Production has historically exceeded resource model by 30%
EMP's biggest problem has been a high COP.
- Last years $2.3 million profit was first profit in 6 years achieved on production of 131k ounces and cash cost of $437 per ounce.
- Expansion of production will lift gold production to 180,000 ounces per annum within next three years with corresponding unit operating cost decline.
- EMP has zero debt and $19 million in cash to fund the expansion.
- EMP is supposedly highly leveraged to gold price.

Acknowledgement to The Prospector column in Dec '02 Shares Magazine.

Whilst EMP appears to be firmly back in uptrend it appears to be encountering some resistance around 82c

Any comments most welcome