Harmony Gold’s Financial Director, Boipelo Lekubo, tells OFM News that Bambanani was always set to close down within three years of it being acquired by the mining giant, however, an uptick in seismic activity in the last five months at the Free State mine has forced Harmony to bring the closure forward by two years owing to safety reasons. The move is resulting in a R144 million writedown for the company. Whilst the closure, come end of June, signals the continued depreciation of the Free State Goldfields, Lekubo maintains it isn’t the end of the road for the mine’s 1500 employees.

The Harmony Financial Director says the company doesn’t envisage a forced retrenchment process owing to the closure. The 1500 employees will be redeployed to any one of the mining giant’s operations in central South Africa. However, should they wish to, a voluntary severance package will be on the table.

According to Harmony, “Bambanani comprises one surface shaft with a sub-shaft that feeds the Harmony 1 Plant, located some 7 kilometres away. Harmony initially acquired Bambanani as part of the acquisition (in a 50:50 joint venture with ARMgold) of the Freegold operations (made up of Bambanani, Phakisa and Tshepong) from AngloGold Ashanti Limited in January 2002. In September 2003, Harmony acquired these operations in their entirety”.

Disappointing interim results for Harmony

The mining giant reported a 65% decline in its half-year profits owing to higher production costs. Lekubo attributes the disappointing interim results somewhat to production being affected at its Hidden Valley operation in Papua New Guinea, due to Covid-19, a problematic overland conveyor, and structural issues at the pit. There was also the drop in the gold price which had previously helped the mining giant reach record high profits in 2021. 

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