Harmony Gold’s September quarter production increased year-on-year because of production from the new South African Moab Khotsong mine it bought for $300m from AngloGold Ashanti earlier this year. Harmony reported a sharp increase in costs because of winter power tariffs and higher labour costs. For the first quarter of its 2019 financial year, Harmony reported production profit of R1.68bn for the three months to end-September compared with R1.4bn in the same period a year earlier, and R1.88bn from the June quarter. The year-on-year change was driven mainly by the inclusion of the Moab Khotsong mine and the restarted Hidden Valley gold and silver mine in Papua New Guinea reaching commercial production levels in June. Moab Khotsong, near Orkney in the Free State, is the largest single source of gold for Harmony, generating 74,911 ounces of gold in the September quarter and coming in with the second-lowest costs in the group at R413,411/kg. In a production update, which did not includ...

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