On Tuesday 31 August, the mining giant with operations in the Free State Goldfields, North West, and South Gauteng, released their financial results for the period ending June 2021, revealing that it saw a net profit of R5, 6 billion during the pandemic year on the back of a 26% increase in gold production and favourable commodity prices. 

The OFM Business Hour sat down with Harmony Gold’s Financial Director, Boipelo Lekubo, regarding some of the mining safety interventions that are being put in place at the mining giant’s operations.

READ MORE: #OFMBusinessHour - Mponeng acquisition, higher gold price, help Harmony soar

“Safety for us is quite an imperative. A single fatality is one too many. We have been on quite an extensive safety drive with the company. The Harmony Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Peter Steenkamp, has often alluded to it in our performance,” says Lekubo.

Harmony says the extensive safety drive has yielded some results for them with over 3 million fatality free shifts achieved across the group in the fourth quarter of the period under scrutiny – the highest number they say in the mining company’s history. The company has also named employees who have died in mining-related incidents, namely: Zamokuhle Shabane (team leader, Bambanani), Zakhele Lubisi (artisan, Kusasalethu), Alexis Lesiamang Ntjantso (driller, Doornkop), Tsoaela Botsane (team leader, Tshepong), Tisetso Pati (winch operator, Tshepong), Rakitsi Seseli (driller, Kusasalethu), Makhetha Allerdice Makobane (driller, Bambanani), Flip Kearabetswe Mahloko (contractor, Free State Surface Operations), Tsietsi Petrus Mateane (driller, Phakisa), Neo Mofokeng (underground assistant, Target 1), and Peter Bangixhanti Fosilara (artisan, Moab Khotsong).

In October 2020, OFM News reported that Harmony temporarily suspended operations at its Tshepong Mine outside Welkom, after two of the named mineworkers died as a result of a fall of ground incident at this Free State mine. The mining company launched an investigation into the incident and halted its operations temporarily. The incident occurred just less than month after a mineworker at Harmony’s Doornkop mine near Soweto in Gauteng lost his life in what has been described as an “underground drilling-related incident”.

READ MORE: AngloGold: Going, going, gone

The mine managed to up its gold production with the acquisition of Mponeng Mine in South Gauteng from Anglo Gold Ashanti. Mponeng is considered the world’s deepest gold mine.

OFM News