Hidden Valley mine not pulling weight
Harmony Gold says it is on track to meet its full-year targets even as the controversial Papua New Guinea operation aggravates the production decline
Harmony Gold’s nine-month output fell compared with the previous year, with setbacks during the March quarter at some of its older South African assets and its Hidden Valley mine in Papua New Guinea. But it said it was on track to meet its full-year production target of 1.05-million ounces. Harmony said its production for the first nine months of the 2017 financial year to June was 812,000oz at a cash operating cost of R439,669/kg. A year ago, it reported cash operating costs of about R455,000/kg in its March quarter. In the same nine-month period a year earlier, Harmony generated 828,686oz of gold from mines in SA and Papua New Guinea. It achieved 260,227oz in 2016’s March quarter, a traditionally slow production time for South African miners. The standout disappointment in the Harmony stable was the Hidden Valley gold and silver mine. In 2016, Harmony took full ownership of the mine, raising eyebrows among analysts, who said it did not have a track record of sustained profit. In t...
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