To view the PDF file, sign up for a MySharenet subscription.

HARMONY GOLD MINING COMPANY LIMITED - Harmony will meet annual production, grade, and cost guidance for FY24.

Release Date: 20/06/2024 12:00
Code(s): HAR     PDF:  
Wrap Text
Harmony will meet annual production, grade, and cost guidance for FY24.

Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited
Registration number 1950/038232/06
Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa
ISIN: ZAE000015228
JSE share code: HAR
("Harmony" or "the Company")

Harmony will meet annual production, grade, and cost guidance for FY24.
Exceptional operating free cash flow generation continues due to improved
recovered grades, a higher rand gold price received, and sustained
operational excellence.


Johannesburg, 20 June 2024. Peter Steenkamp, chief executive officer of
Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited ("Harmony" and/or the "Company"),
reflects on the Company's past financial year, which ends on 30 June 2024
("FY24").


"The starting point behind everything we do is ensuring safe workplaces
as we strive to achieve our goal of zero loss of life. A safe mine is a
profitable mine – without exception. We have embedded a proactive safety
culture, with most operations achieving excellent safety milestones. The
significant improvements in our various leading and lagging indicators
since implementing this plan in 2016 provide further evidence that our
approach is working. However, the significant unwanted events we did
record during the year are stark reminders that we have to do more to
reinforce personal ownership of safety.


Operational excellence, alongside our safety efforts, has ensured that we
recorded    another   stellar   year.   We   continue   delivering   excellent
underground-recovered grades from our South African operations. I commend
each operation for its positive performance. Total underground recovered
grades will be higher than the guided 6g/t for FY24.


Total production for the group is expected to exceed the FY24 guidance of
1 550 000 ounces (48 210kg), while all-in-sustaining costs will come in
comfortably below R920 000/kg, as guided, for this financial year. We
also expect total capital expenditure to be marginally below the guided
R8.6 billion.


This financial year's solid operational performance results from a longer-
term strategy implemented in 2016 when I became CEO at Harmony. This
growth strategy clearly defined where we wanted to be as a company,
placing us on a new trajectory. Our aim is to be the best at what we do;
the past year is testimony to that. I believe we achieved this goal,
positioning us as the champions of gold mining in South Africa.


Our high-grade assets have transformed Harmony's portfolio, giving us a
bright and promising future. Our key projects in execution are critical
in   unlocking significant long-term value for our shareholders and
stakeholders. Our  balance sheet has  been bolstered, and our group
operating free cash flow margins have improved, enabling us to take the
Eva Copper project up the value curve.


Our cost base is predominantly rand-based, with most operating costs
comprising labour, consumables and electricity. We continue to benefit from
the high rand per kilogramme gold price. Having signed a five-year wage
agreement with all five of our unions, we have maintained high certainty
and predictability regarding our planning parameters.


We have built a solid balance sheet, which remains in a net cash position.
Although Harmony has entered a cycle of higher capital expenditures, this
is necessary to ensure we continue replacing our Mineral Reserves while
improving the quality of our portfolio. Our hedging programme, which
allowed us to lock in margins at a higher rand gold price, combined with
our balance sheet strength, places us in a fortunate position that all our
capital needs are affordable and funded through internally generated cash
flows. As a result, we are in an excellent position to pursue our growth
ambitions while rewarding our shareholders through dividends.


In our planning for FY25, we have continued to allocate most of our project
capital to our higher-grade, higher-quality, and lower-risk assets. This
aligns with our strategy of producing safe, profitable ounces and improving
margins through operational excellence and value-accretive acquisitions.
By growing our higher-grade gold mines, expanding our surface retreatment
business, and our international gold and copper assets, we will continue
to transform and de-risk Harmony. We will provide a comprehensive update
on our FY25 plans at our year-end results scheduled for Wednesday, the 28th
of August 2024.


I am pleased that our goals and objectives have largely been achieved. This
has been a monumental team effort that has only been possible because we
are a Harmony family. While improving our safety performance remains a
priority, I have no doubt there is a solid foundation on which Harmony will
continue going from strength to strength. This foundation is built on the
five Harmony values: Safety, Accountability, Achievement, Connectedness
and Honesty.


I thank each Harmonite for their contribution as we continue transforming
into a leading gold-copper mining specialist.


Please join me and my management team on the 28th of August 2024, at 10:00
South African time at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton, for an in-person year-
end results presentation."


The financial information on which this entire note is based has not been
reviewed or reported on by the Company's external auditors.


For more details, contact:
Jared Coetzer
Head: Investor Relations
+27 (0) 82 746 4120


JSE Sponsor:
J.P. Morgan Equities South Africa Propriety Limited
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS


This market release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of the safe harbour provided by Section 21E of the Exchange Act and Section
27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), with
respect to our  financial  condition, results  of  operations, business
strategies, operating efficiencies, competitive positions, growth
opportunities for existing services, plans and objectives of management,
markets for stock and other matters.


These forward-looking statements, including, among others, those relating
to our future business prospects, revenues, and the potential benefit of
acquisitions (including statements regarding growth and cost savings)
wherever they may occur in this market release, are necessarily estimates
reflecting the best judgement of our senior management and involve a number
of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. As a
consequence, these forward-looking statements should be considered in light
of various important factors, including those set forth in this market
release.


By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty
because they relate to future events and circumstances and should be
considered in light of various important factors, including those set forth
in this disclaimer. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on
such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from estimates or projections contained in the forward-looking
statements include, without limitation: overall economic and  business
conditions in South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Australia and elsewhere; the
impact from, and measures taken to address, Covid-19 and other contagious
diseases, such as HIV and tuberculosis; high and rising inflation, supply
chain issues, volatile commodity costs and other inflationary pressures
exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions;
estimates of future earnings, and the sensitivity of earnings to gold and
other metals prices; estimates of future gold and other metals production
and sales; estimates of future cash costs; estimates of future cash flows,
and the sensitivity of cash flows to gold and other metals prices; estimates
of provision  for silicosis settlement;  increasing  regulation   of
environmental and sustainability matters such as greenhouse gas emission
and climate change, and the impact of climate change on our operations;
estimates of future tax liabilities under the Carbon Tax Act (South Africa);
statements regarding future debt repayments; estimates of future capital
expenditures; the  success of   our business  strategy, exploration  and
development activities and other initiatives; future financial position,
plans, strategies, objectives, capital expenditures, projected costs and
anticipated  cost savings  and   financing plans;  estimates of reserves
statements regarding future exploration results and the replacement of
reserves; the ability to achieve anticipated efficiencies and other cost-
savings in connection with past and future acquisitions, as well as at
existing operations; fluctuations in the market price of gold and other
metals; the occurrence of hazards associated with underground and surface
gold mining; the occurrence of labour disruptions related to industrial
action or health and safety incidents; power cost increases as well as power
stoppages, fluctuations  and usage constraints;  ageing  infrastructure,
unplanned breakdowns and stoppages that may delay production, increase costs
and industrial accidents; supply chain shortages and increases in the prices
of production imports and the availability, terms and deployment of capital;
our ability to hire and retain senior management, sufficiently technically-
skilled employees, as well as  our   ability to  achieve  sufficient
representation   of  historically  disadvantaged  persons in  management
positions or sufficient gender diversity in management positions or at Board
level; our ability to comply with requirements that we operate in a
sustainable manner and provide benefits to affected communities; potential
liabilities related to occupational health diseases; changes in government
regulation and the political environment, particularly tax and royalties,
mining    rights, health,  safety,  environmental    regulation  and   business
ownership including any interpretation thereof; court decisions affecting
the mining  industry,  including,  without  limitation, regarding the
interpretation of mining rights; our ability to protect our information
technology and communication systems and the personal data we retain; risks
related to the failure of internal controls; our ability to meet our
environmental, social and corporate governance targets; the outcome of
pending or future litigation or regulatory proceedings; fluctuations in
exchange rates and currency devaluations and other macroeconomic monetary
policies,  as  well as  the  impact  of   South  African exchange control
regulations; the adequacy of the Group's insurance coverage; any further
downgrade of South Africa's credit rating and socio-economic or political
instability in South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Australia and other countries
in  which we operate; changes  in  technical  and  economic  assumptions
underlying our mineral reserves estimates; geotechnical challenges due to
the ageing of certain mines and a trend toward mining deeper pits and more
complex, often deeper underground, deposits; and actual or alleged breach
or breaches in governance processes, fraud, bribery or corruption at our
operations that leads to censure, penalties or negative   reputational
impacts.


The foregoing factors and others described under "Risk Factors" in our
Integrated Annual Report (www.har.co.za) and our Form 20-F should not be
construed as exhaustive. We undertake no obligation to update publicly or
release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events
or circumstances after the date of this market release or to reflect the
occurrence of  unanticipated   events, except  as  required by law. All
subsequent written  or oral forward-looking  statements  attributable   to
Harmony or any person acting on its behalf, are qualified by the cautionary
statements herein.

Date: 20-06-2024 12:00:00
Produced by the JSE SENS Department. The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the JSE Limited ('JSE'). 
The JSE does not, whether expressly, tacitly or implicitly, represent, warrant or in any way guarantee the truth, accuracy or completeness of
 the information published on SENS. The JSE, their officers, employees and agents accept no liability for (or in respect of) any direct, 
indirect, incidental or consequential loss or damage of any kind or nature, howsoever arising, from the use of SENS or the use of, or reliance on,
 information disseminated through SENS.