South African Harmony’s gold production in its second fiscal quarter fell ten percent from the first quarter due to stoppages at two of its operations, it said.
Output fell 271,963 ounces in the three months to the end of December from 303,341 ounces in the previous quarter, the South African gold producer said on Monday. It attributed the fall to restructuring at the Kusasalethu mine, its biggest operation, where the firm was forced to halt output to try to remove scores of illegal miners back in October.
“Kusasalethu has not returned to profitability after various setbacks,” CEO Graham Briggs said. “The underperformance of the mine was further exacerbated by four fires and associated illegal mining activities during the past quarter.”
Harmony’s second-quarter loss consequently widened to 496 million rand ($44 million) from 266 million rand in the previous quarter. Its all-in sustaining costs climbed 1.4 percent to $1,262 per ounce of gold.
The company expects Kusasalethu to return to profitability by the final quarter of the financial year, which ends in June, through job cuts and further cost restructuring.
It also expects its Hidden Valley mine in Papua New Guinea to return to full production during the final quarter following the death of a worker and belt replacement work.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)
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