2026, and to provide an update on Harmony's performance, but also our strategy and our long-term value proposition. The past year demonstrated the value of a clear strategy executed with discipline. This led to an exceptional performance and further strengthened Harmony's position as a growing global copper and gold producer. Our investment case remains underpinned by three factors: disciplined delivery, portfolio progression, and enduring value. Collectively, they highlight not only the strength of our operational and financial performance, but also the advancement of our portfolio and our commitment to sustainable long-term shareholder value. Before we begin, please take note of our safe harbor statement. This presentation today contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties as outlined in our public disclosures and disclaimer included on this slide. Disciplined delivery means three things at Harmony. One, improving our safety. Two, delivering predictable operational performance.
And certainly allocating capital to maximize long-term shareholder value. Today, we, as Harmony, are delivering on all three of those. Our confidence comes not only from our current performance, but from the quality of the portfolio that underpins it. Harmony today is a materially stronger business than it was a few years ago, with greater resilience, greater optionality, and a longer runway to value creation. Harmony is the product today of a decade of deliberate but disciplined investment. If you think of Hidden Valley, Moab Khotsong, Mponeng, Mine Waste Solutions, Eva Copper, and more recently, CSA, were all acquired to lower the overall risk profile and improve production quality. Together, these assets underpin our portfolio today. So up to 2025, we focused on acquisitions and improving portfolio quality. From 2026 to 2030, our focus is execution, delivering and unlocking the value already embedded in what we own.
Beyond 2030, we expect a cash inflection, stronger margins, lower real unit costs, and growing free cash flow. At Harmony, every decision we make aims to first and foremost improve our safety, expand our margins, protect our cash flows, and create long-term value through disciplined capital allocation. As our portfolio continues to evolve, we are pleased that our performance reflects this quality and the opportunity inherent in our reserve base at Harmony. FY 2026 numbers at a glance. Consistent delivery and higher quality gold translating into stronger cash flow and improved shareholder returns. At Harmony, safety is what always comes first. We continue to make good progress and have achieved our lowest ever lost time injury frequency rate of 5.05. Zero harm, of course, always remains our ultimate objective, and protecting our people at work is what matters most to us.
On production, we made gold guidance for the 11th consecutive year now. This is a remarkable achievement for any mining company. We produced 1.43 million oz of gold and delivered 18,200 tons of copper, both at the upper end of our guidance. Grades and costs were both well within guidance too, with gold at an all-in sustaining cost of just under $2,200 per oz and copper C1 costs at $2.47 per lb. Consistency turned higher gold prices into cash certainty at Harmony. We delivered exceptional earnings growth alongside record shareholder returns. Headline earnings per share increased by 100% to ZAR 258 per share, and the company declared a record final dividend of ZAR 47 per share, totaling around $500 million for the financial year. Margins continue to increase at Harmony.
Our focus on execution and cost discipline continues to be reflected in the higher all-in sustaining cost margins of the business. In FY 2026, the average gold price received rose by 46% to $3,800 per oz. We currently report in South African rand, and the local currency strengthened by 7% to ZAR 16 and 89 cents against the US dollar in the last financial year. This, of course, affected our US dollar all-in sustaining costs, which rose 22% to around $2,200 per oz, compared to a 13% increase in our local ZAR currency. Despite this, the widening gap between these two numbers show our ongoing ability rather to capture the benefit of the higher gold price at Harmony. The result is an all-in sustaining cost margin of 42%, up from 31% in the previous financial year.
Our margin expansion, therefore, we would argue, is structural and driven by prudent cost management and continued improvement in portfolio quality. This strengthens our resilience across commodity cycles and gives us the financial flexibility to fund growth and deliver sustainable returns to our shareholders. Cost discipline is part of Harmony's DNA. We have remained focused on controlling what we can control, regardless of the gold price environment. Our cash operating cost increases are predictable, controlled, and in line with plan. Underlying cost growth of 7% before the addition of eight months of CSA production and royalties is comfortably below our 10% planned mining inflation. Labor is our largest single cost component. Labor relations remain excellent in South Africa, and wage inflation is controlled. Two years remain of the current five-year wage agreement we have with our unions in the SA business.
Diesel exposure at Harmony remains limited to only 1% of overall costs. Eskom, the national power utility in South Africa, supplies baseload power to our underground operations, and we are mitigating increases and supply risks through our comprehensive renewable energy strategy. Royalties have increased to around 7% of our costs, driven by improved profitability. Our gold portfolio margins remain exceptional. Our FY 2026 all-in cost margin was 36%, demonstrating resilience, flexibility, and optionality, enabling us to invest in both growth and maintaining our ore bodies. Capital intensity at our gold operations remain very attractive at around $650 per oz. This reflects the ongoing operational excellence and our investment in quality ounces and projects. Our balance sheet is robust, and we have maintained our hedging program to manage risks while we execute on our exciting growth pipeline and take that up the value curve.
Gold remains our foundation, and it is the cornerstone of Harmony. The addition of copper has strengthened the portfolio, adding diversification, resilience, and future growth. The strategy at Harmony is not about volume, it's about unlocking value. Value through high-quality assets, better returns, and disciplined capital allocation. Growth does matter, but only if it strengthens the portfolio and creates long-term value for our shareholders. Every dollar in the business at Harmony competes for risk-adjusted per share returns. We always start by protecting the base. Safety, asset integrity, mining flexibility, and sustaining capital are imperative. This safeguards, first and foremost, our people, ensures reliable production, and protects our cash flow. Next, we invest to improve portfolio quality and duration. Low-cost reserve conversion, higher grades, and ongoing life of mine extensions all lift long-term value. Thereafter, we consider additional growth.
Inorganic and greenfields opportunities must demonstrate compelling risk-adjusted value creation and meet our strict investment criteria before we will allocate capital at Harmony. We do all of this whilst paying returns to shareholders under our enhanced dividend policy. Looking forward, financial year 2027 is a deliberate investment year as we sustain today, improve quality, and grow with discipline. Roughly 20% of our planned capital is being spent on protecting the base. We do this through ongoing sustaining capital that keeps our mines safe and production reliable. Roughly 40% is planned towards improving portfolio quality. Brownfields projects that enhance margins and extend the life of our underground operations remain our lowest cost route to reserve conversion. This is also sustainable mining in action, as these extensions are critical to those who depend on our mines for their livelihood.
The remaining 40% of our planned CapEx is to fund the Greenfields Eva Copper Project. At Harmony, reserve conversion delivers compelling returns as illustrated in the following slides. Converting mineral resources to mineral reserves is a significant value lever at Harmony, and we are doing so at some of the lowest reserve replacement costs in the sector. At Mponeng, Moab Khotsong, Tshepong North, and Doornkop, we have converted approximately 10 million additional oz to mineral reserves at a very competitive $180 per oz. Net present values range from $400 million - $2.4 billion, with phenomenal internal rates of returns ranging from 30%-65%. Critically, those internal rates of returns are based on a gold price assumption of around $3,400 per oz, which is significantly below the spot price today.
Given the scale of our mineral resources, this is one of our core competitive advantages at Harmony, and it sits entirely within our control to convert. On these options, the geology, the grades, the mining methods are well understood by us, and we have high conviction in our ability to deliver on these projects. Same applies to our copper portfolio. We have now applied the Harmony model to CSA, mapping a clear pathway to 40,000 tonnes of copper per year. As a result, the safety performance at CSA has also strengthened since Harmony has taken over, with the lost time injury frequency rates at the lowest level since acquisition. Good progress was made on addressing the main operational constraint, which is the underground ventilation supply at CSA. The CVP or capital ventilation project remains on track, with the first vent rise now holed and complete.
In dealing with improved flexibility, record development of 560 m was achieved during June 2026 month. This accelerates progress on both ventilation access works and decline development. Together, these advances improve access to future ore sources and supports the long-term growth profile of the CSA mine. CSA produced just over 29,000 tonnes on a full-year basis, including the pre-acquisition period as part of FY 2026. This profile will now build to approximately 30,000 tonnes in FY 2027, 34,000 tonnes by FY 2028, and 40,000 tonnes by FY 2029. CSA is delivering on the investment thesis that underpinned the acquisition. A high-grade, long-life asset with meaningful growth potential. Significant drilling intercepts of up to 12% copper were already recorded outside of the existing mineral resource. This drill program also includes a potential extension of more than 500 m below the current mine.
Surface and underground drilling programs continue, with almost 12,000 m drilled in the fourth quarter alone. CSA as a mine has a solid track record of reserve conversion, which aligns with Harmony's strategy of getting the best from our ore bodies. At the Eva Copper Project, we are making good progress. Original capital guidance remains unchanged, and first production is still targeted for the end of calendar year 2028. This is subject to timely receipt of relevant environmental approvals relating to the protected species find on site. Pre-mining has begun in the approved Little Eva area, and processing plant construction is ramping up towards peak activity in calendar year 2027. Project capital spend remains within the original guidance range of $1.55 billion-$1.75 billion, subject to the regulatory process and the necessary approvals.
Eva Copper is still expected to deliver average production of around 60,000 tonnes of copper and 19,000 oz of gold a year over a minimum 15-year mine life. At Harmony, our mineral resource and mineral reserve base continues to grow and, more importantly, improve in quality. Gold mineral resources were stable at 107 million oz. Gold mineral reserves increased to 27.4 million oz on additions from Tshepong North, Mponeng, Kusasalethu, and Eva Copper. On copper, mineral resources increased significantly by 18.5% to 7.4 million tonnes, whilst mineral reserves increased substantially by 71% to 4 million tonnes, driven mainly by Eva Copper and CSA. Reserve grades remain excellent too and reflect a higher quality portfolio going forward. An endowment of this scale and grade in our industry is rare and gives a competitive advantage, low cost, internal conversion potential, long duration, and better cash generation going forward.
It also lays the foundation for the company's next decade of growth and value creation. Over the next decade, Australasia is expected to grow to around 30% of group production, moving Harmony towards an approximate 70/30 regional split. Diversification is making Harmony a stronger, more resilient business. This outlook excludes both the tier one Wafi-Golpu project, which is in the permitting process, and a potential mine life extension at Hidden Valley, where studies are currently underway. We at Harmony have evolved from a single commodity, largely South African gold producer, into a strong regional gold and copper business. We have strategically reduced jurisdictional risk, broadened our exposure to attractive commodities, and created more diversified and durable cash flow profiles for shareholders as we aim to unlock value and further re-rating potential.
Harmony remains a 1.4 million oz-1.5 million oz gold and gold equivalent producer as we add quality, high margin copper to the business. In addition to current plans, conceptual studies could add roughly 350,000 oz of annual production, extending Hidden Valley, reclaiming the West Wits and Free State tailings, and further extension across our optimized South African portfolio. All of this is at a conceptual phase and subject to our safe harbor statement, as highlighted earlier. We are not chasing growth for growth's sake at Harmony. We will only add ounces that improve portfolio quality. The objective is to build a higher quality portfolio, not simply a bigger one. Which brings me to why all of this matter. Disciplined delivery combined with portfolio progression creates enduring value. These outcomes are structurally higher margins, stronger free cash flow, and sustainable returns through the cycle for our stakeholders and our shareholders.
Gold remains Harmony's foundation, as I said earlier as well, supported by a combination of underground, surface, and retreatment operations. Our operational and investment plans strengthen that foundation through continued investment in our gold assets, while adding meaningful copper growth through CSA, Eva, and over time, the tier one Wafi-Golpu copper-gold project. The focus now is on execution. Our FY 2027 guidance reflects safe, profitable, and sustainable production. On gold, we expect production of between 1.3 million oz - 1.4 million oz at an underground recovered grade of approximately 5.6 g per ton. Given our South African cost base, we guide gold all-in sustaining costs of between ZAR 1.3 million and ZAR 1.395 million, South African rand that is, per kilogram. This equates to around $2,300 - $2,465 per oz, depending on the exchange rate that you use.
On copper, we expect CSA's production of between 28,000 tonnes- 30,000 tonnes at a recovered grade of above 3.5% copper. C1 costs on CSA guidance is between $2.55 and $2.65 per lb. On CapEx, FY 2027 is a deliberate investment year. Around $820 million of CapEx is guided for our gold business, $120 million for the CSA copper mine, and for Eva Copper, capital of between $650 million and $780 million is planned. As I said earlier, on Eva Copper, this remains subject to environmental approvals pertaining to the endangered species find. In closing, this is Harmony's investment case. Harmony is a long-life gold producer with a copper-driven growth and optionality. We are the only South African gold producer with meaningful copper exposure. Combined with our track record of operational excellence, we believe this is what sets us apart. We believe this differentiates Harmony from many of our peers.
A business generating substantial cash today, underpinned by a portfolio that provides significant future growth optionality, and a management team with a demonstrated track record of execution. I thank you for your time today, and I am happy to now take some questions.
Unfortunately, we are out of time. I am sure Beyers is going to be around if there is any questions for him.
Thanks.
Thank you very much, Beyers.
Thank you.
Our next company is IAMGOLD. And [inaudible]