Harmony Gold (mining)

Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd.

Type	Public
Traded as	: HMY
Industry	Gold
Headquarters	Melrose Arch, South Africa
Key people	Patrice Motsepe (Chairman) Peter Steenkamp (CEO) Ferdinand Dippenaar Bob Atkinson
Revenue	$1.18 billion USD
Number of employees	N/A
Website	www.harmony.co.za

Harmony Gold is the third largest gold mining company in South Africa, the 12th largest in the world (2009) and the 5th largest gold producer in the world. Harmony and its subsidiaries conduct underground and surface gold mining and related activities, including exploration, processing, smelting and refining. During the fiscal year ended 8 October 2004 (fiscal 2004), the company processed approximately 33.955 million tons of ore and sold 3,225,187 ounces (100,376.7 kg) of gold. It also has operations in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Canada. The company owns a number of mines including Elandskraal mine and Phakisa Mine. In South Africa, Harmony Gold holds at least nine mines, an open-pit mine, and many surface operations.[1]

The Big Bell Gold Mine was acquired by Harmony through the take over of New Hampton Goldfields Limited in April 2001 for A$54 million. Harmony closed the mine in June 2003, having found previous assessments of the grade at Big Bell over optimistic and making mining the deposits thereby unprofitable. In January 2010, the mine was sold to Aragon Resources Limited, who chose to rename the project to Murchison Bell.

Acquired through the take over of Abelle Limited in April 2003, Harmony sold on the Gidgee Gold Mine in November 2003 to Legend Mining for A$6.5 million.

The Hill 50 Gold Mine at Mount Magnet, in care and maintenance since December 2007, was acquired by Harmony in 2002 when the company took over Hill 50 Gold. Harmony sold the operation to Monarch Gold Mining in late 2007, but Monarch was unable to complete the transaction and went into administration in July 2008. After being unable to re-sell the mine, Harmony conducted a study in regards to carrying out mining at Hill 50 once more. It is currently considering the option of consolidating historic resources into one large super pit, rather than to carry out costly underground mining. Harmony expects the study to be completed in the third quarter of 2010.