Company announcements

Shaft bottom repair in progress at Harmony’s Joel mine

July 08, 2010

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Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited announces that it has commenced extensive changes and repairs to the shaft bottom at its Joel North Shaft in the Free State.

Harmony’s CEO, Graham Briggs says, “The production focus at Joel has over time been shifting to the deeper portions of the mine, at approximately 1,400 meters below surface. The North Shaft was never fully equipped for production and we have therefore made extensive changes to the bottom of the shaft arrangements.”

Modifications to the shaft have among others, included:

• Changing of the winder from sinking to production mode;
• attaching bigger skips;
• ensuring that emergency egress is available;
• and raise boring the lift shaft from 121 to 129 level.

Operations at the shaft however, had to be halted at the end of June 2010 to complete the bottom of the shaft spillage arrangements. A mutual decision was taken by the Department of Mineral Resources and management to stop operations at the shaft until the shaft bottom is cleared from the spillage and more permanent arrangements are put into place.

Briggs adds, “We anticipate that the shaft will be operating again during August 2010, once repairs to the shaft bottom have been completed. The employees at Joel have been sent on leave and will return to work as of 10 August 2010. In the interim, the Joel plant will be processing waste to maximize gold production. Joel’s gold production for the June 2010 quarter will be marginally affected by this decision but we anticipate that gold production for the September 2010 quarter at Joel will possibly be halved. However, we have teams working around the clock to resolve this situation as soon as possible.”