Harmony bullish on gold, uranium
South African gold miner Harmony (HAR) is bullish about prospects for the dollar gold price, CE Bernard Swanepoel said on Wednesday.
25/04/2007
Johannesburg
Swanepoel said although he never predicts the gold price, he is bullish on the metal's prospects.
He pointed out that the rand/gold price was "higher than ever" and that the stronger gold price had helped Harmony in the March quarter.
Harmony reported earlier that a higher rand/gold price received of R151 833/kg and good cost control translated into a cash operating profit of R8685m - an increase of 15.1% quarter on quarter.
Its headline earnings per share rose 31.8% to 58c for the quarter ended March, compared with 44c/share for the December 2006 quarter and a 48c per share loss for the March 2006 quarter.
Waking up to uranium
Swanepoel said that the company was "waking up" to uranium, admitting that fund managers told him about the prospects for uranium five years ago.
He said that about a year ago, his project managers had become excited about it, and that now, he was "unashamedly embarrassed" about his excitement about uranium.
Describing slime dams as "a beautiful asset to own", Swanepoel said Harmony was now evaluating its uranium resources through an extensive drilling and data-capturing exercise.
The group has initiated extensive drilling exercises in the Free State and Randfontein, where drilling sampling is being overseen by an independent third party.
Test results expected soon
He said that from an estimated 56 tailings dams, a number have been prioritised for drilling based on historical gold and uranium values. These include five dams in Randfontein and six in the Free State.
Swanepoel indicated that preliminary results are expected at the end of June and that he hoped to make a resources declaration by then. He added that there had been significant interest in Harmony's Cooke Dump, in Randfontein, which is believed to contain up to 2m pounds of uranium.
The estimated value of the Cooke Dump uranium could be as much as R3.7bn at $133/lb, he indicated. At $75/lb, the value of the resources is around R1.5bn.
Markus is to join board
Kathie Markus, until recently a director of Impala Platinum, is to
join the board of Harmony (HAR) as a non-executive director from May 1.