Good morning everyone, and welcome to the Harmony Gold FY25 results presentation analyst call. All attendees will be in listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity to ask questions when prompted. If you should need assistance during the call, please signal an operator by keying in star and then zero. Please note that this event is being recorded. I will now hand you over to Jared Coetzer. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning. Hi everyone, it's Jared here. I'm here with the Harmony executive team today. Beyers Nel, our CEO, and Boipelo Lekubo, FD, will be taking questions. I'll be handing over to Baz now. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jared. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for the Harmony results for the financial year ended 30 June 2025. Harmony's purpose is to create shared value through responsible mining underpinned by safety, sustainability and operational excellence. This disciplined approach has delivered a decade of consistent performance, resulting in strong cash generation and a future driven by gold and copper, quality ore bodies, and collaboration. In FY 25, we met guidance for the 10th consecutive year and delivered record free cash flows. Our high margin portfolio continues to drive earnings and support sustained shareholder returns. The key features for the 2025 financial year include the following. Safety remains our priority, and despite the tragic losses of life in FY 25, Harmony achieved an all-time low lost time injury frequency rate of 5.39 per million hours worked.
This demonstrate continuous progress in our journey towards zero harm. Headline earnings per share increased by 26% to ZAR 23.37 or $1.29. We generated record adjusted free cash flows, which increased by 54% to ZAR 11.1 billion or $600 million. This was driven by high recovered grades and higher average gold prices received. As a result, we have declared a final dividend of ZAR 1.55 or approximately $0.09 per share. This brings the total FY 2025 dividend payout to a record ZAR 2.4 billion. Operational excellence resulted in underground recovered grades increasing by 3% to 6.27 grams per tonne from 6.11 grams per tonne.
Gold production decreased by 5% to 46 tonnes or 1.48 million ounces, in line with our plans, and came in towards the upper end of guidance. All-in sustaining costs increased by 17% to ZAR 1.05 million a kilogram, or $1,800 per ounce, also in line with our guidance. Excluding our optimized assets, all our other operations operated at an all-in sustaining cost below $1,500 per ounce and generated meaningful cash flow at strong margins. We were supported by a 27% increase in the average gold price received to ZAR 1.5 million a kilogram or just over $2,600 per ounce. This, along with consistent production, drove a 20% increase in group revenue to ZAR 74 billion or $4.1 billion.
Our balance sheet remains healthy and flexible with a 285% increase in net cash to ZAR 11.1 billion or $628 million. We have liquidity of ZAR 21 billion or $1.2 billion in cash and undrawn facilities. As we continue to de-risk Eva Copper, mineral resources have increased by 31% to 1.93 million tonnes of contained copper, and gold resources have increased by 12% to 492,000 ounces. Harmony has substantial declared mineral resources of around 106 million ounces and mineral reserves of approximately 37 million ounces in gold and gold equivalents. Pending the Mac Copper shareholder vote tomorrow, we expect the acquisition to conclude in October 2025. Looking ahead to our FY 2026 guidance.
Production guidance remains steady at between 1.4 million and 1.5 million ounces, reflecting our consistent delivery over the past 5 years. Underground recovered grades is expected to be above 5.8 grams per tonne, and our all-in sustaining cost guidance is between ZAR 1.15 million and ZAR 1.22 million a kilogram. To advance our growth projects and sustain flexibility at our mature assets, capital guidance increases to ZAR 12.95 billion. We will of course revisit our guidance in February 2026, pending the Mac Copper acquisition. Thank you. We will now take questions.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting the question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please key in star and then one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may key in star and then two to leave the question queue. Just a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, you're welcome to key in star and then one. Our first question comes from Shilan Modi of HSBC. Please go ahead.
Morning, everyone. Congrats on a solid set of numbers. I know it was a little bit light versus some expectations, but overall, I think solid. Can you give us an idea, given your guidance for the next year, you know, volumes, if we just take the midpoint of your guidance range, volumes are about 2% down year-on-year, cost guidance is up about 12% on midpoint. Underground grades are also down 7%. It does look like, you know, there's gonna be a bit of margin pressure in the business going forward. At the same time, you know, you're looking at building Eva Copper and consolidating MacCopper.
Can you give us an idea of how you're thinking about the balance sheet going forward, cash returns, and how you're prioritizing basically CapEx between current operations and your new ventures?
Shilan, thank you very much. You know, thank you for your comments there. Sure. Yes, you know, we are looking at. You know, from a production point of view, I'll start there. You know, consistency is very important for us. I mean, as I highlighted in the start, you know, this is our tenth consecutive year of meeting and exceeding our guidance. You know, that's both cost, grade, and production. You know, we do take that philosophy around de-risking our plans, you know, the quality of our technical inputs, the front-end loading on our production, the necessary flexibility, you know, very seriously in Harmony. You know, from a production output point of view, you know, we are comfortable that that's the level, you know, that we can deliver at.
That obviously has, because it's the guidance is a unit cost of production, you know, when there's lower production, it obviously does impact, you know, the percentage increase on a unit cost basis in the AISC. So that speaks for, you know, for the production part of it. If you look at the cost part of it, you know, the cost increase on a rand basis is in line with, you know, typical mining inflation. You know, that is what we, you know, what we see. That, you know, we can't necessarily, you know, do too much about. We are spending a little bit more on sustaining CapEx again this year. Similar to last year, you know, we guided that we will.
These are taking care of necessary things in the business. You know, among others, you know, there's some work that we're doing on our tailings dams, you know, some work we're doing on our IT services, you know, just catching up, you know, with some things that we need to do there. You know, we're pretty comfortable, Shilan, that our costs are not, you know, out of kilter or out of control. You know, it is doing the necessary things. You know, another big item in the line there is, you know, we're replacing fleet on Hidden Valley mine.
You'll hear later on, and perhaps you did spot it in the deck, you know, we had a mine life extension there to 2030, which means, you know, the Hidden Valley will extend longer. You know, obviously, you know, we need to do the necessary, you know, fleet replacement and, you know, spend the money to be able to get those safe tons out consistently and predictably. It's predictably at Hidden Valley as well. That's pretty much how we think about it. You know, and obviously, you know, we are sitting in a supportive, you know, gold price environment. Still, we can't control that. You know, we can control our cost, our safety, and our production.
You know, we obviously also have the forward cover, you know, in terms of our hedging in place still, which, you know, also give us that, you know, necessary certainty going forward. Perhaps it's worth noting, you know, three of our, if I may, Shilan, just further, you know, we divide our business into four quadrants, as we said in the deck. Three of the quadrants, which is the high-grade underground, the surface, and the international quadrants operate at an AISC below $1,500. You know, the optimized assets we know is higher. You know, it is what it is. You know, we know those mines mine for cash, and we optimize, you know, we mine to the maximum value of that ore body.
You know, there is that buffer there still.
Okay, thanks. Perhaps one more, if I may. How are you thinking about hedging going forward? Is it time to do away with hedging or are you gonna persist with the current policy?
Yeah, we are starting to get that question more and more. It is a good question. You know, we are for now, you know, we are comfortable at the levels, you know, we are at. You know, we do have, you know, a program of capital spend ahead of us, you know, and we do want to get through that. I mean, obviously hedging has served, you know, the company very well, you know, in periods over the last decade. You know, obviously now the tables have turned a little bit to some extent. For now, you know, we're comfortable with where we are.
I mean, if you look at the hedges, I mean, you know, the hedges are locking in, you know, significant margins for us, going forward. Comfortable with the levels we are at, you know, given the capital program we have ahead of us.
Thanks very much.
Our next question comes from Christopher Nicholson of RMB Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Chris, your line is open. You can ask your question. Unfortunately, not getting any response from Chris's line. Going on to the next question, which comes from Raj Ray of BMO. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, Beyers, and team. Couple of questions, if I may. First up on your great guidance for Mponeng and Moab. Beyers, can you outline what opportunities you see, well, for potentially getting your grades further up fiscal 2026 guidance that you have given? I mean, I understand it's still above your reserve grade, but it's a drop against, you know, fiscal 2025. How long do you expect to be around these grades? Or do you expect an uptick in grades come fiscal 2027, if we can get some guidance there. Part of your cost is also being driven by the drop in grade year-over-year.
Can you outline what optimization and cost optimization exercises you have in place to offset some of the inflationary pressures that you continue to see? Lastly, if I may, on Mac Copper. Given the vote is tomorrow, is there anything else, any final approvals that needed because, I was hopeful that it would close sometime in September, but you're still saying it's October.
Thank you, Raj-
That's it.
... for those questions. I jotted down as fast as I could, so I hope I've covered all of them. You know, the team will help if I miss out. If I start with the grades at Mponeng and at Moab Khotsong, yes. I mean, we are seeing continued phenomenal grades coming from from Mponeng. You know, higher grades than what we than what we planned. That has been a trend that has been persisting for the last few years. How we should think about that, and that's a consistent response I have been giving is, you know, we need to think about Mponeng at the reserve grade level. And hence, if you look at our guidance, you know, our guidance normalizes for the over-performance in grades back to reserve grade.
You know, I can say that Mponeng, you know, if you look at the mining areas, you know, we're mining now, you know, the areas we're mining is still very good grade, Raj. I mean, you know, the good grades are continuing there. At mines like Mponeng, you mine in a very strict sequential grid mining method, which means, you know, I suppose to your next point around levers to pull in order to mine higher grade or lower grade in order to offset costs. You don't have that much that you could do. You know, if you do start to mine out of sequence at a mine like Mponeng, you trigger, you know, increased levels of seismicity and, you know, rock responses that you don't want.
You basically have got this fixed mining front, you know, on 123 level, 126 level, east and west of the ore body, and you're basically mining that in a grid formation going forward. Moab is the one that I again, you know, we should think of it as in line of reserve grade. It's getting tougher and tougher at Moab. You know, I must say, you know, we are mining out that ore body. The Zaaiplaats project is continuing. That's the deepening of Moab Khotsong, you know, which Harmony started, you know, when we acquired the mine, or at least, you know, we did our own feasibility study first and then approved that and announced that.
Moab Khotsong is the one where, you know, you're mining smaller areas now, you know, some areas isolated blocks of ground. You know, your ability to manage north of your planned grades at Moab Khotsong, I think is getting less and less. That would, of course, you know, change when we get into the new raises in Zaaiplaats in a few years from now. As far as offsetting cost and inflationary pressure on grade management, yes. You know, we've consistently been able to increase our grade at Harmony over the last number of years. You know, what we don't do when we have these phenomenal surge in gold prices, we don't drop our cut-off grades. You know, we don't go and mine lower grade areas, Raj.
You know, we see that just erodes value. Often the ounces that you decide to develop today, you're only mining two years from today, and, you know, two years from today, the gold prices may be lower than today, and then you've got, you know, certain margin mining ahead of you. Which is not what we're wanting to do. We're keeping our, you know, thinking hats on when it comes to grade management and, you know, we're trying to keep our grade cut-off grades constant. Obviouly also after that, you know, that's from a planning point of view. After that comes the quality mining principles, you know, clean mining, making sure our lock-ups, you know, mine call factor, shortfall factor, things are as good as they always have been.
You know, for us, grade management is a little bit of an internal franchise rather than, you know, if you want to call it, like that.
Beyers, if I
Yeah. What is that?
Yeah, if I may.
Sure.
Yeah, I understand the sequencing and why it's important. I think I was more approaching that from the point of, like, how much development do you have ahead of you that gives you visibility, and are you happy with the amount of development you have ahead of you? Or are you falling behind? I mean, if you can give some idea in terms of how much visibility you have with both Mponeng and Moab.
Yeah. Sure, Raj. We use a model called the Iceberg Model. You know, very good descriptor. You know, trying to see, you know, what you don't see. You know, and that talks about flexibility immediately, mineable face length, ahead of you. We take that very seriously, not only at Moab and Mponeng, but at all our operations in Harmony. That's a tool we use. It's a little model we use that actually describe the number of development meters we have to do, both on the reef horizon and on the waste horizon, you know, in order to sustain the necessary flexibility at a mine. What is important about it is every mine's risk factors are different.
You've got a mine, for example, that's got a variable grade ore body, so your grade risk factor, mining panels out of grade is higher. You've got a mine that's seismically active, so your risk for seismic closure is higher at a certain mine. Each mine has got its defined risk factors and we Building our development plans exactly in line with the amount of meters that is prescribed by the Iceberg Model. That's no different at any mine, but in particular, you know, at a mine like Mponeng and Moab, you know, we're comfortable with the development rates. Firstly, we planning. We planning for success on the necessary amount of flexibility as well as on the delivery and the execution of those development meters.
Okay, that's all. Yeah.
MacCopper, yes, you highlighted that it is the shareholder vote tomorrow. You know, we are, you know, optimistic and confident that things will go according to plan. What is then outstanding is, you know, the court sanctioning process. That is the process where, you know, we are subject to, you know, dates from the courts. You know, that is the date that's, you know, at the moment, you know, the October date for the implementation date of the acquisition launch.
Okay, that's great. Thank you, Beyers. That's it from me.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Arnold van Graan of Nedbank CIB. Please go ahead.
Yes, morning, everyone. Thank you. Well done on the results. Two quick ones from me, Beyers. The first one is the Hidden Valley life extension. Is that predominantly driven by the gold price or what else is at play there? Another quick one. Are you done with M&A for now? You've got enough on your plate or you are still looking around? That's it. Thank you.
Thanks, Arnold. Arnold, Hidden Valley, I think you may recall that we've always said that, you know, there's still a lot of, you know, resources and reserves there. It was always constrained by tailings deposition. You know, it is a mountainous country, and, you know, finding engineered tailings solutions is always the limiting factor. What we have been able to do is we've been able to find additional deposition capacity to extend the mine life from which would have ended in 2028 to 2030 now. There's an additional 2 years at Hidden Valley. We have found solutions for the tailings. We are also, you know, we're not concluded on that yet.
We're also looking at extending Hidden Valley's life beyond 2030 as well, you know, with further studies. We'll obviously, once we've gotten those answers, we'll come back on that. I mean, Hidden Valley, if you look at the performance again in this year, and remember that's off a very strong year in the previous year, you know, mining that very high grade, big grade part of the ore body last year. You know, this year was another phenomenal year at Hidden Valley. You know, extending the mine life there, that's high margin production. I mean, the mine has been performing very well. On the M&A front, yes, quite right.
You know, we do have a lot on our plate, you know, and we've got a lot to deliver on, you know, with what we've done in that space already. You know, our team is constantly on the lookout, you know, evaluating, you know, opportunities. You know, there is nothing concrete at the moment. For now, you know, the focus is, you know, building our organic projects in gold, extending the mine life where there's value, and then obviously closing MacCopper and bringing Eva Copper to the market later this year.
Perfect. Thank you. That's it from me. Cheers.
Arnold.
Our next question comes from Christopher Nicholson of RMB Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, Beyers and team. Sorry about not getting through earlier. I was just wondering if you could just chat a little bit about two things. Number one, the CapEx guidance for 2026. It's quite a material increase. I mean, you've gone to about ZAR 12.9 billion. I think previously we had ZAR 10 point something. You've called out the fleet replacement at Hidden Valley, and obviously there's some deferred stripping there. What else are the primary drivers of that CapEx increase? I don't know if you could provide some more detail there. That's the first question. Just a second question, maybe I don't know if Boipelo's around, but maybe she could chat a little bit about the tax and more.
I mean, I see the effective tax rate is 31% this year, but how should we expect that to evolve going forward and specifically the cash tax paid. Thank you.
Sure, Chris. Thank you for those questions. I'll take the first one, and then I'll ask Boipelo. She is right next to me.
Hi.
Chris, I'll ask her to come in on the second one. Chris, yes, you know, we spent about ZAR 11 billion this year, and the guidance is going up to, you know, north of that ZAR 12 billion. Hidden Valley mine life extension is a big part of it, and let me just qualify that. Obviously the mine will be around for longer and, you know, there is necessary mining fleet replacement there. You know, that's about ZAR 1 billion or just north of ZAR 1 billion rand, on Hidden Valley. Obviously, as I alluded to earlier in Arnold's question, you know, we haven't got definitive answers on that yet, but we're also looking at you know, further extension.
You know, the mining pit, you know, we investing there, you know, will be put to good use, as well as, you know, the deferred stripping at Hidden Valley. A lot of that increase is going to Hidden Valley for the two extra years of life and potentially life extension beyond that. The rest of our bulk capital is going into organic projects. You know, following Hidden Valley, you know, we're spending the most amount on Mponeng, Moab Khotsong. You know, these are our high-grade operations which, you know, we've got that 20-year mine life extension project. Boipelo, would you mind taking the next one?
Thanks, Chris. I mean, the total tax is really split into two parts. I'll speak first to the current tax. That's about a 73% increase, so call it ZAR 4.2 billion on that increase. Really, I mean, that is just because of the increased profitability of the operations. A lot of the unredeemed CapEx has already been utilized. I think what's also important to note is that we apply a gold mining tax formula, which will tax you higher the more profitable you are. Other, you know, commodities like platinum, et cetera, don't really have that. You know, we've had instances now where, for instance, Mponeng would have been taxed at 20%. It's now being taxed at a marginally higher rate.
You are correct, so on average between 29%-30%. Second to that has been obviously deferred tax. That increase was about ZAR 2.5 billion, and that's really on the back of temporary differences on property, plant and equipment. I'll also refer you to note 6 in the financial statements. That unpacks the deferred tax quite nicely as to the other elements that resulted in that increase.
That's great. Thanks, Boipelo. I mean, what I'm hearing is that, obviously I do understand the mining tax formula, but, I mean, if profitability and gold prices, I guess, stay where they are, we should expect this kind of run rates going forward. Is that a fair assumption to make?
Correct.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, just a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, you're welcome to press star and then one to place yourself in the question queue. It appears we have no further questions in the queue. I will now hand back for closing remarks.
Right. In conclusion then, Harmony remains committed to preserving financial strength and flexibility to fund growth and return value across commodity cycles. As we mark 75 years, we do so with pride in our legacy and confidence in our future. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's event. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.