3
Chief executive officer’s review
As a team, we have had extensive engagement with our shareholders,
members of the media and other stakeholders during the past quarter.
It has struck me on more than one occasion how surprised many of our
visitors have been – at the range of our operations, at the capital we
have invested, at the depth and breadth of the skills and experience
base that we have developed. What has struck home for many of
them – and for me personally – is that the Harmony of today is a very
different one to that of yesteryear. We have, I believe, established a
platform of excellence and leadership in many areas, strategic planning
and determined effort.
Everything we do at Harmony is based on our values – safety, honesty,
achievement, accountability and connectedness. This means we do what
is right for our people, our assets, our business and our stakeholders.
We understand that our credibility depends on delivery, so we
plan carefully before we commit. We have seen some significant
improvements during financial year 2012 in safety and production at
some of our mines – at others we acknowledge that more needs to
be done. We have introduced short interval controls at each shaft and
monitor and assess our performance on a daily basis. The company has
continued to build its strong financial position, as well as its relationships
with various stakeholders in the areas that we mine in.
Safety and values
It is with deep regret that I report that Narciso Jose Matusse, an
engineering assistant at Evander, died in a work-related incident
during the quarter. We extend our deepest sympathy to his family and
colleagues.
Safety at Harmony encompasses two elements: systems/standards
on the one hand and culture on the other. Implementing world-class
safety systems/standards at our shafts is a straight-forward, though
painstaking task in which we are making good progress. We are closing
the gaps, where required.
Changing a culture though is much more difficult. During the year we
conducted a cultural alignment survey and asked employees which
values support their activities at Harmony on a day to day basis. The
feedback from the cultural alignment process was used to prepare a
cultural change programme. Our people are our gold and the cultural
alignment programme aims to reinforce that.
The values shared by our workforce are:
1.
Safety is our main priority – no matter what the circumstances are
2.
We acknowledge that we are accountable for delivering on our
commitments
3.
Achievement is core to our success
4.
We
are
connected with all our stakeholders as a team.
5.
In all our business dealings we uphold honesty and communicate
openly with stakeholders.
Safety therefore starts with me, and likewise with each of our
employees. Our value stipulates that we behave safely in everything
we do – ‘zero harm, zero accidents, zero fatalities’. Although we are
making progress, as can be seen in the improvement in the safety
indicators on page 5, our aim remains to have no fatalities at all. I am
confident that we can do so.
Gold market
Quarter on quarter the gold price in US dollar terms was 4% lower. The
weakening of the R/$ exchange rate from R7.73 to R8.12 in the same
period, resulted in the R/kg gold price received being 0.5% higher at
R421 672/kg.
Year-on-year, the US dollar gold price received increased by 23%
from an average of US$1370/oz for the previous financial year to
US$1680/oz during the past year. During the same period the Rand
weakened by 11% against the US dollar, resulting in an increase in
the gold price of 36% in R/kg terms from R307 875/kg in the previous
financial year to R419 492/kg in the past year – leaving the company
with strong margins.
We remain bullish on the gold price and believe that it will resume its
upward trend in FY13 as uncertain economic times prevail.
Operational and financial results
The quarter compared well to the first and second quarter with respect
to tonnage production and proved that the operations can do better
through focussed planning and execution of the plan. Gold production
for the June 2012 quarter was 14% higher than the previous quarter,
driven by higher tonnage and improved grade. Operating profit
increased by 24% to R1.4 billion when compared to the March 2012
quarter. Cash operating cost per unit improved by 5% quarter on
quarter, at R279 719/kg. Total operating costs were higher, mainly due
to an increase in electricity tariffs and consumables.
Year on year, the group increased its operating profit by 80% to
R5.9 billion, compared to the R3.3 billion operating profit generated
in the 2011 financial year. Gold production decreased marginally from
40 535kg to 39 642kg. Cash operating cost per kilogram of gold
produced increased by 20% to R270 918/kg, while cash operating costs
in US$/oz terms only increased by 8% as a function of the weakening
of the R/US$ exchange rate by 11% to R/US$ 7.77.
A net profit of R2.6 billion was generated for the year – this represents
a four-fold increase on the R617 million profit recorded in 2011. Net
profit for the quarter decreased to R47 million, mainly due to year-end
deferred tax adjustments.
Headline earnings and headline earnings per share (HEPS) more than
doubled year on year, from R957 million to R2.4 billion and 223 SA cents
to 551 SA cents respectively. Due to an increase in the deferred tax
rates as a result of improved life of mine plans, increased exploration
expenditure, an increase in depreciation and amortisation as well as
a change in estimate of gold in lock-up (primarily at St Helena plant,
Steyn plant and Kalgold), a headline loss of R87 million and headline
loss per share of 20 SA cents were recorded for the June 2012 quarter.
Wafi-Golpu
Results from the resource definition programme have been extremely
encouraging with the resource potential at Wafi-Golpu continuing to
improve with on-going drilling.
At Golpu four holes targeting the upper levels of the resource model
in the lift 1 area intersected broad zones of strongly mineralised
hornblende porphyry containing up to 5% chalcopyrite, which are:
WR433: 440m @ 1.22%Cu, 0.53 g/t Au from 346m
including: 190m @ 2.57% Cu and 1.15 g/t Au from 594m
This particular intercept has extended the high grade mineralised
hornblende porphyry 80m north of the previous drilling and it remains
open through the grid to the north. The result from WR433, together
with intercepts from WR432, and WR434 also indicate better continuity
of high-grade mineralised porphyry than currently modelled. Increased
volumes of high-grade porphyry mineralisation in the upper levels of
the deposit are now being realised.
The resource drilling has also confirmed a new zone of gold mineralisation
located immediately west of the Golpu copper-gold orebody. WR426