[miningmx.com] – A SERIES of production stoppages will reduce Harmony Gold’s March quarter production by up to 15% compared to the December quarter – a period hailed by CEO, Graham Briggs, as one in which the group proved it could thrive at lower gold prices amid operational successes.
Briggs said in February that Harmony had adapted to the lower gold price – down more than a fifth during 2013 – and that the company was sustainable, and even “thriving’, at a gold price of between $1,200 to $1,250 per ounce (oz).
It produced 305, 913 oz in the December quarter which would put March quarter output at between 275,321 oz and 269,203 oz and given the group’s guidance today that production would be 12% to 15% lower.
This was equal to revenue of $35.3m to $36.1m at the current dollar gold price of $1,314/oz or, at a rand/dollar exchange rate of 10.75, about R379m to R388m. Harmony booked revenue of about R4bn in the December quarter and a net loss of R91m from a R13m profit in the September quarter.
The reduced output was owing to stoppages following the Doornkop tragedy in which nine miners died after a fire broke out at the mine on February 4.
Production was also interrupted at the group’s Free State province mine, Joel, owing to flooding at the bottom of the shaft, while at Kusasalethu, a mine on the west Rand, a turnaround process had been slower than planned.
Reflecting the group’s renewed focus on safety, mining at another shaft, Steyn 2, was suspended. “Production at Steyn 2 was suspended six months earlier than its original
life of mine plan, due to the safety risk that seismicity in the working areas posed,’ the company said.
Shares in Harmony were down about 2% on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange today taking losses since March 14 around 12% lower.
