SA’s biggest gold producer, Harmony Gold, says it cut debt by a quarter in the three months to end-September, getting a bump from a weaker rand.
Net debt fell R139m to R454m in the period, the first quarter of the miner’s 2022 financial year, with the rand-gold price up 4% from the previous three months due to a weaker local currency.
Gold output rose 1% quarter on quarter and by almost a third year on year, to 413,714oz.
Harmony’s production received a boost from the R3.4bn purchase of AngloGold Ashanti’s underground and tailings retreatment operations, adding extra ounces from October 2020.
“Newly acquired assets and assets that we have reinvested in now represent 62% of operating free cash flow, while our surface source operations accounted for 34% of operating free cash flow this quarter,” the group said.
The quarter-on-quarter increase in underground production was on the back of improved grades and tonnes milled at the Moab Khotsong, Kusasalethu, Target 1 and Doornkop operations, the group said.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda), a measure of core profitability, rose 16% to R1.78bn quarter on quarter, but was down 27% year on year. The rand gold price was down 10% year on year.
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