Harmony CEO Graham Briggs

Johannesburg, South Africa --- 17 August 2012 - Harmony Gold Mining Company’s South African operations have delivered the goods for the group, enabling it to make a mint of the higher gold price during the past financial year.

Posting quarterly and annual results for the period to the end of June 2012, Harmony said its operating profit for the year had increased by 80% to R5.9 billion, enabling it to more than double headline earnings per share to 551 cents, Miningmx reports. The group generated a net profit of R2.6 billion, a four-fold increase on the R617 million of 2011, and declared a final dividend of R216 million at 50 cents per share. The total dividend declared for 2012 amounted to 90 cents per share.

With respect to production, the year’s output was slightly down by 2% at 1,274,520oz, with cash operating costs up to US$1,085/oz.

CEO Graham Briggs didn’t want to convey much information about the pre-feasibility results of the company’s “game-changing” Wafi-Golpu resource in Papua New Guinea, saying this information would be shared with the market at the company’s investor day on 29 August.

He did say, however, that the profitability of the group would enable it to fund its growth projects from self-generated cash and existing facilities. “Raising money is not on our cards at all at this stage,” he added.

Source: Miningmx. For more information, click here.