Harmony Gold HARJ.J posted an 87% rise in annual profit on Thursday, as higher gold prices helped offset the impact of lower output and grades, allowing the miner to pay a record dividend.
Harmony, South Africa’s biggest gold producer, which also has an interest in copper, said its headline earnings per share came in at 43.63 rand ($2.73) in the year ended June 30, up from 23.37 rand in the prior year.
It said it will pay an annual dividend of 7.50 rand per share, nearly five times last year’s payout.
The company benefited from a 35% increase in the average gold price, which helped soften the impact of lower gold output, which fell 3% to 1.43 million ounces from the previous financial year.
Harmony has forecast even lower gold output between 1.3 and 1.4 million ounces for the current financial year.
The gold price XAU= rose sharply during the year, supported by sustained central bank purchases and increased investor demand for safe-haven assets amid heightened geopolitical tensions, policy uncertainty and concerns over global economic growth.
Papua New Guinea copper project talks continue
Copper output from Harmony’s newly acquired CSA mine in Australia was 18,207 metric tons, toward the upper end of its guidance. The mine is forecast to produce between 28,000 and 30,000 metric tons of copper in the 2027 financial year.
Harmony acquired the CSA mine in October 2025, expanding its copper portfolio, which also includes the Eva copper project in Australia and the Wafi-Golpu project in Papua New Guinea, jointly owned with Newmont NEM.N.
Negotiations for a mining development contract and special mining lease with the Papua New Guinea authorities are continuing after the government appointed a team to review the work done by state negotiators, Harmony’s finance director Boipelo Lekubo told Reuters.
“I guess that process, in a way, put more time in terms of where we are. But as things stand, we feel we are getting closer and closer to each other,” she said.
Harmony diversified into copper – a metal critical to electric vehicles and power grid infrastructure – to take advantage of growing demand for the metal amid a global shift to cleaner energy.
(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Nelson Banya; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Rashmi Aich and Tasim Zahid)
