Company announcements

South African Everest climbers summit early morning as Harmony’s Extreme Team

June 03, 2005

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Wellknown extreme adventure mountaineers, Alex Harris and Sibusiso Vilane stood on top of the world early this morning. They joined forces with Harmony during their stay at 6 400m above sea level to officially launch ‘Harmony Team Extreme’.

For the past month Harmony has been in regular communication with Harris, via satellite phone, to conclude one of South Africa’s ‘high’ profile sponsorship deals.

‘Alex and Sibusiso approached Harmony only weeks before their departure to Nepal with a proposal to launch the ‘Harmony Team Extreme’ during their current Everest expedition’, said Ferdi Dippenaar, Harmony’s Marketing Director.

The Harmony Team Extreme duo has enjoyed worldwide recognition for taking mountaineering to the extreme. Vilane, a game ranger, made headlines two years ago after becoming the first black African to summit Everest. The second half of the team, Alex Harris, became the youngest person at the age of 25 to lead an expedition to Mount Everest and in 1998 he became the first South African to have climbed on all seven continents.

The Harmony Team Extreme finished their acclimitisation preparation two weeks ago, and was anxiously waiting in anticipation for the weather to improve on the Everest North Side. For the past few weeks prolonged Jet Stream winds (highspeed winds exceeding 400 kilometers per hour) aggravated weather patterns towards to the top of the mountain (approximately 8848m above sea level). Jet Streams are usually followed by the annual monsoon in the Tibetan area. Between these weather occurrences there is a calmer weather pattern called the ‘window period’, which allows the climbers to summit.

The window period is determined by creating trends with past and future weather reports. ‘As inspiring as it is to see the North Summit everyday from Advanced Base Camp (ABC), the wait has been extremely frustrating. We are part of a strong team in this attempt, which helps us to keep focused’, said Harris via satellite phone a few days ago. He added that ‘Sibu and myself are doing very well, it has been extremely cold in the past few days but luckily we know that we are moving closer towards the end of our stay at ABC’.

As part of Harmony’s Corporate Sponsorship profile, the Harmony Team Extreme will aim to align their physical and mental experiences in a message to encourage Harmony employees to extend their personal limits. Upon their return, the team will support Harmony’s internal communications strategy in motivational talks and visits to employees and surrounding communities. ‘We believe that The Harmony Team Extreme will play an integral part in motivating our workforce and surrounding communities by sharing their experiences’, said Dippenaar.

For more details contact:

Bernard Swanepoel
Chief Executive
+27(0)83 303 9922

Ferdi Dippenaar
Marketing Director
+27(0)82 807 3684

Brenton Saunders
Executive, Investor Relations
+27(0)83 607 4060

Vusi Magadana
Investor Relations Officer
Office: +27 11 684 0149
Mobile: +27(0)72 157 5986
vusi.magandan@harmony.co.za