HARMONY Gold said it was reviewing its capital structure in a way that would match “its funding profile to its cash flow generation”.
Commenting in a production update for the first quarter of its 2026 financial year (to end-September), the South African miner said it would provide an update on its decisions at its interim results next year.
A review of “the structure of debt instruments” comes amid a record gold price which has seen miners in the sector report all-time increases in cash generation.
Barrick Mining, AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields have unveiled new capital management strategies with special dividends, commitments to sizeable payouts of free cash flow and share buy-backs featuring highly.
For the first quarter, Harmony Gold registered a 53% increase in net cash to R17.1bn ($989m) from R11.1bn ($628m) as at 30 June 2025. Cash and available undrawn facilities rose 27% to R26.6bn over the same period.
Harmony has aggressively invested in an offshore diversification strategy. It recently concluded the $1bn acquistion of MAC Copper, an New York listed firm that operates the Australian-based CSA Copper Mine.
The company is also due to announce whether it will proceed with Eva Copper, another Australian asset it bought for $170m. Based on the previous owner’s feasibility study, pre-production capital of Eva Copper was forecast to be $597m.
Set against these projects, and the extension of its Mponeng mine in South Africa, Harmony runs a relatively conservative dividend policy of paying 20% of net free cash. The company has been criticised for this in the past.
Post the completion of the MAC Copper deal, Harmony said its net debt to Ebitda ratio remaine “comfortably below our internal threshold of 1x”.
For the first quarter, Harmony produced eight percent less gold year-on-year. At some 389,923 ounces this was, however, largely planned owing to lower expected grades at Moab Khotsong. An unplanned event was a decline in output at Doornkop owing to shaft water handling constraints. The issue had been resolved, said Harmony.
Despite this setback, the group said it was tracking above full year guidance, which it expected to meet, of between 1.4 to 1.5 million oz in production at an AISC of R1,150 000 to R1,220 000 per kilogram.
