Harmony Gold said yesterday that with one quarter’s production remaining for the 2023 financial year, it remained confident of achieving its annual guidance.
In its operating update for the nine months ended March 31, 2023, released yesterday, the group said it was set to achieve its guidance of 1 400 000 to 1 500 000 ounces in total production.
By 4.30pm the company’s share price was up 2.11% at R99.97 on the JSE yesterday.
The gold miner reported a 49% increase in group operating-free cash flow to R3.2 billion from R2.17bn, supported by higher recovered grade from its South African underground operations, which had a 94% increase in cash flows, boosted by the Mponeng mine which contributed 39% towards group operating-free cash flow.
“Our investment in quality ounces is paying off as Mponeng delivered a 192% increase in operating-free cash flow of R1.27bn for this reporting period from R437 million in the previous nine-month period ending March 31, 2022,” it said.
The group said it had a 2% increase in total gold production to 33 785kg after adjusting for the closure of Bambanani at the end of the 2022 financial year.
It achieved a 13% increase in average gold price received to R992 899/kg from R877 249/kg.
Harmony reported that the South African high-grade operations, namely Moab Khotsong and Mponeng, delivered improvements in all operating metrics for this reporting period.
“Recovered grades improved by 6% to 7.53g/t from 7.12g/t in the previous reporting period. This resulted in a 7% increase in production to 10 012kg, 321 892 ounces from 9 370kg,” it said.
Harmony said the optimised underground portfolio consisted of Tshepong North, Tshepong South, Joel, Target 1, Masimong, Kusasalethu, and Doornkop.
These mines continue to perform well, and most operations delivered good performances across the key operational metrics year on year.
Gold production from the optimised operations declined by only 2% to 14 839kg in the previous reporting period, excluding Bambanani, the group said.
The strong performances from Tshepong South, Joel, Masimong, and Doornkop in this reporting period were offset by ongoing challenges at Target 1 and lower-than-anticipated recovered grades at Kusasalethu.
Harmony said production from the Hidden Valley mine increased by 27% to 2 934kg in the reported period from 2 306kg in the nine months of the 2022 financial year.
“We expect improvements in both silver and gold grades from Hidden Valley mine in the final quarter of the year as the mining operations reach the higher grade Big Red portion of the ore body,” the group said.
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