Harmony’s acquisition of Pamodzi Gold’s Free State assets completed
Johannesburg. Monday, 22 February 2010. Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (Harmony) is pleased to announce that all conditions precedent relating to its acquisition of the Pamodzi Gold Free State (Proprietary) Limited’s assets (Pamodzi Gold’s Free State assets), have been fulfilled and that the deal has now become unconditional.
During the past few months, Harmony conducted pre-production work at the shafts, to make these operations safe and return them to production. Production at Steyn 2 and Loraine 3 shafts will now commence and more work is being done to underground workings at Steyn 1 shaft. Production at these 3 shafts for the first 12 months is estimated at 100 000 oz at an average recovered grade of 5.5g/t and at a cash cost in the order of R218 000/kg. Production will then increase to 150 000 oz for the second 12 months at a cash cost of about R160 000/kg.
The plant clean-up began in December 2009, and 800kg of gold is expected to be recovered over the next 18 months. Milling of rock from the Freddies 9 waste dump at a throughput of 35 000tpm and a recovered grade of 0.55g/t has commenced. This rock is processed at Harmony’s Target plant. Harmony has re-employed 1000 employees and we expect the total number of employees to increase to approximately 2,500 over the next two years.
Harmony CEO Graham Briggs said: “We are pleased that the deal has been successfully concluded. Our teams are now working hard to ensure that these shafts remain safe and are productive. Our planning indicates promising results from these operations. ”
For more details contact:
Esha Brijmohan
Investor Relations Officer
on +27(0)82 759 1775
Marian van der Walt
Executive: Corporate and Investor Relations
+27(0)82 888 1242