Harmony looking for more BEE ownership

[miningmx.com] – HARMONY Gold said it would look for “other opportunities” to increase ownership of historically disadvantaged South Africans (HDSAs) in the company, and that it more than complied with the targets set down in the mining charter.

“Our presence in South Africa is real and lasting and so will our legacy be,’ said Graham Briggs, CEO of Harmony Gold who added that the company remained “… committed to identifying other opportunities to further facilitate HDSA ownership”.

“The company believes that its performance in terms of each of the nine pillars set out in the Mining Charter illustrates that it does more than just comply,” he said.

This follows the results of an audit into mining charter compliance ten years after it was first launched in which the South African government said the mining sector did not comply in terms of providing 26% ownership in mining companies to HDSAs.

As a result, the mining sector and the government had decided to jointly ask for a legal ruling on the matter which will investigate the disputed notion of ‘once-empowered, always-empowered’.