World number-six gold miner Harmony Gold on Thursday fell to a fresh three-year low as the rand touched another six-year best and the rand gold price fell below R80 000 per kilogram for the first time since August 11 2004.
Harmony’s share price is also under pressure due to its hostile takeover bid for world number-four gold miner Gold Fields, with Harmony’s subsequent offer set to end on February 4 2005.
Harmony secured 11,8% of Gold Fields as a result of its early settlement offer.
At 9.45am, Harmony’s shares on the JSE Securities Exchange were trading at R52,50, down 0,8% or 41 cents from a previous close of R52,91. In early trade, Harmony touched R52, the share’s lowest level since November 23 2001.
The rand gold price was last at R79 840 per kilogram, down from Wednesday’s closing level of R80 495 per kilogram.
In the September quarter, Harmony’s cash cost amounted to R77 800 per kilogram. For the December quarter, Harmony was aiming to cut its cash cost to R77 500 per kilogram, followed by a further cut to R75 000 per kilogram by the June 2005 quarter.
Harmony is expected to produce a headline loss per share for the December quarter when it issues its December 2004 quarterly result in January 2005.
This will be Harmony’s sixth consecutive quarterly loss.
In the September quarter, Harmony reported a headline loss per share of 110 cents, from 131 cents in the June quarter.
So far in the December quarter, the rand-per-kilogram gold price has averaged R84 874 per kilogram, up 3% from R82 287 per kilogram in the September quarter.
During the September 2004 quarter, about 17% of Harmony’s production was loss-making. — I-Net Bridge