3
Chief Executive’s Review
With another financial year that has drawn to a close, it is important
to take stock of what we have achieved and to assess the progress
made against our ambition to create a company capable of generating
earnings that fund growth and dividends on a sustainable basis.
During financial year 2011, we:
•
commissioned excellent gold mines in South Africa and Papua
New Guinea (PNG);
•
expanded the world class Wafi-Golpu resource to 9 million
tonnes (Mt) of copper and 26.6 million ounces (Moz) of gold (100%);
•
increased production from growth projects by 22% year on year;
•
tailored each mine’s business plans to its unique requirements;
•
pro-actively addressed industry challenges;
•
improved production and productivity at most of our mines, and
continue to work at replicating that level of success across the
board;
•
increased Harmony’s exploration exposure in PNG – a country with
world class exploration potential – to 8000 km²;
•
improved the quality of our asset portfolio through the disposal
and closure of non-core assets;
•
celebrated Harmony’s 60th year in operation on 25 August 2010.
We made good progress in getting the company where we want it
to be – producing better quality ounces. Hidden Valley in PNG is now
an operating mine, Harmony’s first greenfields offshore development,
which was formally opened in September 2010; in South Africa we
have Kusasalethu, Doornkop and Phakisa projects, all of which are
in build-up, and Tshepong and Masimong which have been steady
contributors to production. We dealt with the challenges at mines
such as Evander, Target and Joel to ensure these mines are positioned
to deliver on their production targets.
Harmony has invested a great deal in the expansion of its production
base in South Africa and PNG. The investment in exploration continues
to pay dividends, with the Wafi-Golpu resource showing a phenomenal
57% increase to over 1 billion tonnes during the year. Golpu’s grade is
over 1% copper, confirming it is one of the highest grade copper gold
porphyry systems in South East Asia. These excellent results validate
our long-held belief that PNG is a game-changing region for Harmony.
On a 100% basis, Golpu alone now hosts a resource of 869Mt,
containing 19.3Moz of gold and 9.0Mt of copper (62Moz on a gold
equivalent
1
basis). This represents a significant year-on-year increase,
with an additional 368Mt (73% increase), comprising 8 956kt copper
(88% increase) and 10.5Moz ounces of gold (119% increase). Our
resource base in PNG now represent 10% of Harmony’s total gold
resources (or 21% of the resource on a gold equivalent basis), which
is in line with the Company’s strategy to increase its geographic
diversification.
Annual production was lower than planned at 1.3Moz, largely due to
safety stoppages and under-performance at some of the shafts. We
continue to improve the business planning process, using benchmarks
and targets we believe to be realistic. Our ‘life of mine’ plans support
our commitment to improving the grades from our underground
operations, lowering our cost base and benchmarking our costing
parameters internally across our operations as well as externally
against other gold producers. Our focus remains on producing safe,
profitable ounces and our operations in build-up will add to our
production in future.
Safety
Tragically, three employees (South Africa) and one contractor (PNG) lost
their lives during the final quarter of the financial year. The deceased
were Mbuzeni Sihoyiya, a locomotive guard at Kusasalethu, Michael
Sello Matea, underground assistant at Joel, Mbuyiseli Malungisa, a
locomotive guard at Masimong and Kerry Kowitz, a contractor working
on the Wafi-Golpu access road. I would like to extend my deepest
condolences to their families, friends and colleagues.
Safety is a top priority at Harmony. We have put in place a number
of safety initiatives, which have resulted in excellent safety
achievements. Fatalities do, however, continue to occur. As a result,
we appointed Alwyn Pretorius (previously the chief operating officer:
North region), who is very familiar with Harmony’s underground
working environment, to assist in further improving and accelerating
the execution of our safety and health strategy.
Gold price
Increasing global economic uncertainty is making gold an even
stronger investment option than it already was. At over $1 700/oz,
gold remains a currency and we believe the gold price will continue
its strength. Investors in Harmony have complete exposure to the spot
gold price, as the company does not hedge its gold. During the past
quarter the gold price received strengthened from R312 029/kg to
R329 536/kg.
Operational results
Quarter on quarter
Gold production for the June 2011 quarter is 3% higher than the
previous quarter, despite days lost to public holidays. The past quarter
saw excellent improvements in development metres, mainly at the
build-up operations. Build-up at Phakisa, Doornkop, Kusasalethu and
Hidden Valley progressed well.
Grade remained steady at 2.08g/t.
Year on year
Tonnes milled for the year under review increased by 7% or
1 317 000 tonnes when compared to the previous financial year. The
main contributors were:
•
Doornkop: The build-up resulted in an additional 178 000 tonnes
(33%) being milled for the year under review;
•
Target 3: The inclusion of its first commercial production during the
June 2011 quarter (75 000 tonnes);
•
Free State surface operations: Tonnes increased by 1.2 million
tonnes, mainly waste rock dumps;
•
Hidden Valley: Recorded a full year of production and tonnes milled
increased by 1.4 million tonnes to 1.7 million tonnes, achieving its
production guidance for the year.
The operations in build-up showed an increase in gold production.
Hidden Valley produced 3 118kg, an additional 1 215kg (64%) in
comparison to the 1 903kg it produced in the previous financial
year. Doornkop’s production increased by 562kg (29%), Phakisa’s by
391kg (29%) and Kusasalethu’s by 165kg (3%). Gold production for the