Harmony, SA’s largest gold miner, has cut its full-year production forecast by about 4% due to issues in Papua New Guinea, including a conveyor belt failure.
Gold production from the core SA operations remained steady in the six months to end-December, but the company cut its full-year guidance for its Hidden Valley mine by about a quarter.
Harmony now expects to produce 1.48-million ounces to 1.56-million ounces for its 2022 year, down from as much as 1.63-million previously. Hidden Valley’s guidance was revised to between 115,000 and 117,000 ounces, from as much as 161,000.
Gold production at the mine in New Guinea fell 26% in the six months to end-December, with Harmony reporting geotechnical issues that prevented effective mining.
Covid-19 related restrictions and rostering also had an effect on the workforce in Papua New Guinea, while 6km of overland conveyor belt was damaged in early January 2022 and needs to be replaced, Harmony said. The damage was due a splicing failure, it said, referring to the join between parts of the belt.
Waste and ore mining at the mine continues and trucks are being used to transport ore to the plant until the belt repairs are completed towards mid-March 2022. During this period, major scheduled maintenance work will be carried out on the process plant.
The Hidden Valley mine is an open-pit gold and silver operation 210km northwest of New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby. The mine is located in steep mountainous and forested terrain with high annual rainfall.
Harmony also operates nine underground mine and one open-pit operation in SA, as well as several surface treatment operations.
The company’s shares were up 1.22% at R63 in morning trade on the JSE on Wednesday compared with a 1.71% in the precious metals’ index was up 1.71%.
The stock has risen 23% over the past two years, while the index has gained about a third.
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