HARMONY GOLD MINING COMPANY LIMITED 'While the past financial year will be defined and remembered as a year of extremes, our consistency and determination has lifted us and given us all a new sense of hope, compassion and motivation, ensuring that we at Harmony deliver on what we promised to our stakeholders and shareholders.
Safety and health
From the very beginning of the pandemic, we knew we had to focus on the well-being, health and safety of our employees and host communities. At the same time, it was also imperative to steer the company through these unprecedented times to realise our strategic objectives. I am proud to report that we did both.
Not only have our comprehensive health and safety operating procedures resulted in our teams remaining safe, but our commitment to operational excellence has ensured we remained on track to meet our production guidance for FY21. These successes do not happen in isolation and it is due to the unwavering dedication and commitment from our safety and health teams in ensuring our employees' wellness, as well as the contribution from each and every one of our employees, that we maintained our momentum. We trust that the imbedded COVID-19 preventative and mitigating measures will enable us to continue producing safe, profitable ounces in the year to come.
The company's COVID-19 vaccination programme is also currently underway following the granting of Harmony accreditation to administer the vaccine by the South African government. Five vaccination sites were certified in Gauteng, the Free State and North West and the company is doing bulk registrations for those who wish to receive the vaccine. In PNG an employee vaccination programme is also being rolled out with support from the National and Provincial Health Departments.
As we celebrate our successes, it is important to acknowledge and address the lowlights. Most tragically, was the loss of 9 of our employees' lives through safety related incidents, during the course of FY21, while COVID-19 has claimed 55 of our colleagues lives to date. I send my heartfelt condolences to each and every family member and friend of our colleagues who are no longer with us.
As we strive to reach our goal of zero loss of life, we are working day and night to ensure we continue to prioritise the health and safety of our people at all times. We care about our people and we are therefore spending a significant amount of resources to develop our leaders' capabilities, ensuring we achieve our safety objectives. Embedded practices throughout the company stipulate what is expected of each person, but also challenges unsafe routines and unsafe habits. We are running various safety awareness campaigns throughout the company. Impactful safety days are held, videos are shared on safe behaviour and we are continuously addressing Harmony's overall culture.
During the last quarter of FY21, Harmony recorded its third fatality-free quarter in the history of the company. Thank you to each and every Harmonite and stakeholder for assisting in achieving this outstanding accomplishment.
Growing quality gold ounces
The successful acquisition and integration of Mponeng and related assets has been a game changer for Harmony. We have managed to grow our gold ounces and de-risk our portfolio while expanding our margins and improve our cash flows well into the future. Not only are we now the largest gold producer in
Advancing our copper-gold footprint in
In December last year we obtained approval of the Environmental Permit for our Tier-1 Wafi-Golpu project in PNG, further advancing our copper-gold aspirations. Discussion with the PNG government as it relates to the special mining lease recommenced during the fourth quarter of FY21.
Environmental, Social and Governance factors ('ESG') entrenched in our decision-making
From a sustainability perspective, we hosted our inaugural ESG day in the fourth quarter of FY21 under the theme of 'Who Cares Wins'. This allowed the management of Harmony to unpack our integrated and risk based sustainable development strategy, further emphasising our commitment towards sustainable mining, transparent governance and our people. In addition, the announcement by the South African President to increase the cap on self-generation to 100MW was especially positive and will further assist us in optimising and decarbonising our business through a significant renewable energy programme.
Achieving our annual production guidance
The continual and unwavering commitment to operational excellence has ensured our mines are hitting their straps, ensuring we deliver on our promises to each of our stakeholders. As such, Harmony has met its annual gold production guidance for FY21 by producing between 1.50Moz to 1.55Moz up to
In conclusion
As we head into financial year 2022, we will further benefit from the many opportunities we have created through our acquisitions. Through careful and strategic capital allocation decisions, we have improved almost all our metrics both financial and non-financial.
We are confident in our ability to deliver long-term positive shareholder and stakeholder returns and remain committed to achieving our strategic objective of safe, profitable ounces.
FY21 was anything but easy, therefore I again thank our over 46,000 employees who have demonstrated resilience and commitment. I would also like to say thank you to our many shareholders and stakeholders for the trust you have placed in us. It is because of this trust that we have a strong foundation on which to further build our business and continue delivering positive shareholder returns through sustainable mining for many years to come.
Please stay safe and healthy. We look forward to sharing more detailed operational and financial information with you as it relates to our FY21 results via a virtual platform on 31 August 2021.'
Contact:
Tel: +27 (0) 82 746 4120
The Company's primary stock exchange listing is on the JSE with a secondary listing on the
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