Gold windfall to put Harmony growth plans in the shade
HARMONY Gold said on Monday it would publish details of a feasibility study into Eva Copper on August 28 when it announces what are likely to be stellar year-end operating and financial results.The expectation is that Harmony will set Eva Copper up for a final investment decision at calendar year-end, making it the company’s second copper asset in Australia.In May, the South African miner unveiled a $1.03bn (R18.4bn) tilt for Australia’s MAC Copper, a New York-listed company which operates the 41,000-ton-a-year CSA copper mine in New South Wales.But despite this push into copper, it’s likely to be gold that dominates headlines for the firm given the continued record-breaking performance of the metal – a function of central bank buying amid major geopolitical distress, rising concerns about inflation, and US indebtedness.The rally has translated directly into Harmony’s financial performance. For the half-year ended December 31, the average gold price in rands was 23% higher year-on-year. In dollar terms, the metal’s price averaged $2,437/oz compared to $1,900/oz for the previous half-year. The outcome was a 33% increase in Harmony’s interim headline earnings. Consequently, Harmony declared a record-breaking interim dividend of 227 cents per share, equal to R1.44bn or $78m.Gold’s momentum has only accelerated since then, gaining nearly 29% year-to-date. It is currently trading at $3,366/oz, but has broken through $3,400/oz. Anticipating yet better cash generation, shares in Harmony sailed to an all-time high of R340 per share in April.Against this backdrop, Harmony said in a trading statement production and cost guidance for the 12 months ended June would be met.Production would come in between 1.4 and 1.5 million ounces while all-in sustaining costs would be comfortably between the guided range of R1,020,000/kg to R1,100,000/kg. Underground recovered grades will exceed the guided six grams per ton while total capital expenditure for the year will be slightly below the guided R10.8bn.“We have a firm grip on our costs, which are predominantly rand-based and comprise mainly labour, consumables and electricity,” said Beyers Nel, CEO of Harmony in the update. “We continue to benefit from the high rand per kilogram gold price and maintain a high level of certainty and predictability as it relates to our planning parameters.”Harmony said in November it could produce more copper than first expected from Eva, possibly between 50,000 to 60,000 tons of copper annually. But a final decision would turn on whether to build a larger concentrator, it added.Based on estimates by Copper Mountain Mining Corp., Eva Copper’s previous owner, the project was scoped to produce 50,000 tons a year of copper. However, Harmony’s subsequent work has upgraded the asset’s potential.The company said that its drilling campaign had resulted in an increased mineral resource currently sitting at 366 million tons (Mt) grading at 0.4% copper. This makes for production over the life of mine of 1.47Mt in copper and 440,000 ounces of gold.The post Gold windfall to put Harmony growth plans in the shade appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com
Quelle: Mining.com
