Harmony Gold Mining has reported a robust first quarter, with all its financial metrics heading in the right direction.
SA’s biggest gold producer by volume said on Monday that total gold output rose 17% to 425,130oz in the three months to end- September year on year, boosted by higher average underground recovered grades in SA and a strong showing from its Hidden Valley mine in Papua New Guinea.
The rand gold price rose 18% to more than R1m/kg, from R955/kg a year earlier as geopolitics and strong buying momentum from central banks boosted the appeal of the metal.
As a consequence, gold revenue surged 33% to R14.78bn during the quarter, from R11.13bn in the matching period a year ago. All-in sustaining costs, an industry metric measuring total production costs, fell 7% to R841,436/kg.
“The first quarter saw a continuation of the strong operating performance across all our operations, resulting in higher gold production and outstanding operating free cash flows,” the company said.
Its operating free cash flow surged 278% to R3.23bn, while operating free cash-flow margins more than doubled, to 22% from 8%. Net debt was reduced to just R117m from R2.7bn a year earlier. Its share price ended 8% higher at R91.27 on the JSE, outperforming other gold stocks on the day.
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