Harmony Reserves and Resources declaration
Johannesburg, Wednesday, 25 July 2007. Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (Harmony) is pleased to publish its Statement of Ore Reserves which has been produced in accordance with the South African Code for the Reporting of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (The SAMREC Code) and the Australian Code (The JORC Code) as at 30 June 2007.
Harmony announces gold Ore Reserves of 53.6 million ounces as at 30 June 2007. Despite the disposal of assets, successful pre-feasibility studies have added additional ounces to our reserves.
Table 1
| Gold (tonnes) |
Gold (million ounces) |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Balance at June 2006 | 1 742 | 56.0 | |
| Reductions | Mined during FY2007 | (76) | (2.4) |
| Western areas equity ounces | (131) | (4.2) | |
| Disposals and shaft closures | (34) | (1.1) | |
| Total | 1 501 | 48.3 | |
| Additions | Evander South (Pre-feasibility) | 65 | 2.1 |
| Golpu (Pre-feasibility) | 44 | 1.4 | |
| Other adjustments | 56 | 1.8 | |
| Balance at June 2007 | 1 666 | 53.6 |
As indicated in the table above, Harmony’s Ore Reserves as at 30 June 2007 reflects a year-on-year depletion of 2.4 million ounces when compared with the combined ore reserves for 30 June 2006. Disposals of assets, shaft closures, and the loss of the Western Areas equity ounces accounts for a further decrease of 5.3 million ounces of reserves.
The successful pre-feasibility studies at Harmony’s Evander South Project as well as Golpu in Papua New Guinea (PNG) added 3.5 million ounces to the reserves. A further increase of 1.8 million ounces is attributable to growth in the reserves from the South African operations.
A gold price of US$520/oz was used for the conversion of Mineral Resources to Ore Reserves at our South African and Australasian operations. An exchange rate of USD/ZAR6.88 for South Africa and AUD/USD 0.73 for Australia has been used, resulting in a gold price of R115 000/kg or A$712/oz respectively.
Table 2
| Tonnes (Mt) | g/t | Gold (‘000 kg) | Gold (‘000 oz) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proven reserves | 56,3 | 5.81 | 327 | 10,5 |
| Probable reserves | 275,2 | 4.65 | 1 278 | 41,1 |
| Total | 331,5 | 4.84 | 1 605 | 51,6 |
| Tonnes (Mt) | g/t | Gold (‘000 kg) | Gold (‘000 oz) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proven reserves | 196,1 | 0.29 | 57,2 | 1,8 |
| Probable reserves | 11,5 | 0.59 | 6,8 | 0,2 |
| Total | 207,6 | 0.31 | 64,0 | 2,0 |
Harmony also announces the completion of pre-feasibility studies for the Golpu copper/gold deposit, located at the Wafi/Golpu site in the Morobe province of PNG. The Wafi pre-feasibility currently underway is due for completion in October 2007.
The highlight of the pre-feasibility study is the definition of a probable ore reserve of 70.8 million tonnes grading 1.13% copper, 0.61g/t gold, and 121ppm molybdenum. Importantly, the mining plan has restricted the overall average arsenic grade to 136ppm, with the highest grade in any single year restricted below 300ppm, to ensure that a saleable concentrate is maintained throughout the project life.
Further analysis undertaken during the pre-feasibility study indicates that inclusion of inferred material in the mining plan may see the mining inventory increase to 100.7 million tonnes grading 0.95% copper, 0.54g/t gold, and 129g/t Molybdenum. Based on this mining inventory and metal prices of $2.30/lb copper and $520/oz gold, the mine will have a production life of approximately 13 years, recovering 64 000 tonnes of copper, and 73 000 ounces of gold to concentrate per year.
Table 3
| Cutoff Cu % |
Tonnes (Mt) |
Cu % |
Au ppm |
As ppm |
Mo ppm |
Cu Metal (‘000t) |
Cu Metal (million lbs) |
Au Metal (‘000oz) |
Mo Metal (‘000t) |
Mo Metal (Million lbs) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Probable | 0.0 | 70.8 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 136 | 121 | 800 | 1 763 | 1 389 | 8.6 | 18.9 |
In addition to the gold reserves of Hidden Valley included in table 1 above, Hidden Valley has the following silver reserves:
Table 4
| Tonnes (Mt) |
g/t | Silver* (‘000kg) | Silver* (‘000oz) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 38.1 | 34 | 1 299 | 41 759 |
This Statement forms part of the company’s Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources declaration which will be published in our FY 2007 annual report towards the end of September 2007.
In addition our annual report will contain full details of our uranium resources. In the meantime, we are pleased to declare the following uranium mineral resources within the measured resource category, as a result of an extensive drilling exploration programme:
- 5 tailings dams in Randfontein; 360 million tonnes containing 79 million pounds of U3O8
- 6 tailings dams in the Free State; 190 million tonnes containing 30 million pounds of U3O8
The resources quoted above represent total contained dump resources and no economic cut-offs have been applied. Economics of dual pay limits have also not been applied.
Chief Executive Bernard Swanepoel says, “The FY 2007 annual report will be the first report in our 57 year history in which we will declare copper, molybdenum And uranium reserves and resources. Despite the fact that we have always owned uranium, it was always treated as a mere by-product and off-set against cost. The results of our uranium deposits prove to be worthwhile to proceed to feasibility study stage”.
The competent persons responsible for the overall preparation and reporting of the company’s mineral resources and ore reserves are Jaco Boshoff (South Africa), Mark Cossam (Australia), Jake Russell (Australia) and Greg Job (Papua New Guinea).
For more details contact:
Amelia Soares
General Manager, Investor Relations
Tel. + 27 11 684 0146
+27(0)82 654 9241
Jaco Boshoff
Ore Reserve Manager
+27(0)83 395 3810
Graham Briggs
CE, Australasian Operations
+27(0)83 2650274