Company announcements

Harmony closes Merriespruit 1

October 18, 2010

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Johannesburg, 18 October 2010: Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (Harmony) announces that, following careful and considerable review, the company will be closing Merriespruit 1 shaft in Virginia at the end of October 2010.

Earlier this year a productivity-linked deal with the trade unions was reached that allowed Merriespruit 1 to continue its operations provided it did not make a loss (on a total cost basis, including any capital expenditure) for two consecutive months and total costs remained under R250 000/kg. Despite the operational team’s best endeavours, Merriespruit 1 has failed to meet these conditions and closure procedures have commenced.

Employee representatives, through their trade unions, have been informed of the closure. Management has embarked on a formal consultation process with employees in terms of the Section 189A of the Labour Relations Act (previously agreed to in respect of the Virginia closures), to consider alternatives to retrenchment. Approximately 1 470 employees are affected by the closure. Of this amount, 1 200 will be transferred to mainly our growth operations and approximately 270 may be retrenched.

“The operational team and unions at Merriespruit 1 used the profitability agreement as an opportunity to extend the mine’s life; they gave it their best to meet the agreed conditions, but the orebody is mined out and with the current cost pressures in South Africa it is simply no longer viable to continue mining at this operation. Harmony will minimise job losses by transferring the majority of affected employees to mainly our growth projects,” said Harmony CEO Graham Briggs.

For more details contact:

Marian van der Walt
Executive: Corporate and Investor Relations
+27 82 888 1242(mobile)

Henrika Basterfield
Investor Relations Officer
+27 11 411 2314 (work)
+27 82 759 1775(mobile)