Beyers Nel
Management
Good morning, everybody. My name is Beyers Nel, and it is a privilege for me to present my first set of results to you in my capacity as CEO. I'm joined today by our Financial Director, Boipelo Lekubo in presenting the operational and financial results for the half year ended 31 December, 2024. Please take note of our safe harbor statement. Harmony delivered a stellar set of interim results. Our underground recovered grades increased to 6.4 grams per tonne ahead of our full year guidance. Group production was about 25,000 kilograms or 800,000 ounces for the first half also ahead of guidance. Our all-in sustaining cost remains well controlled and on track to beat guidance too. In rand terms, all-in sustaining costs was about ZAR 972,000 a kilogram or just under US$1,690 per ounce. All-in costs for the reporting period, which includes our major capital was just over ZAR 1 million per kilogram, or US$1,810 per ounce. And it's because of our relatively low capital intensity that this is not much higher than the all-in sustaining costs. We generated record interim operating free cash flows of ZAR 10.4 billion, or US$579 million. The operating free cash flow margin has expanded to 29% as a result of our investment in quality ounces, and of course, the high gold price we received. Our headline earnings per share has grown by 33% to ZAR 12.70 per share, or US$0.71 per share and we are delighted to announce a record interim dividend payout of ZAR 1.4 billion for the half year. As South Africa's largest gold producer our goal is to produce safe profitable ounces and improving our margins by delivering on our four strategic pillars. Responsible stewardship is at the heart of our actions and is core to our decisions. Operational excellence inspires us to do better and be better every day. Cash certainty is not only important to our shareholders and stakeholders, but also to us. As such, we manage our costs and focus on improving our efficiencies. For capital allocation to be effective, we take into account human, social, resource and financial capital amongst others. Our decisions are made for the long-term benefit of all our stakeholders. To maximize value, we have grouped our assets into four quadrants, each with its own risk profile and specific role in contributing towards our growth strategy. These quadrants are: firstly, our South African high-grade underground assets, our high-margin, low-risk South African surface and tailings retreatment operations, our international copper-gold portfolio, and our South African underground optimized assets. With our specialized mining skills and unique operating model, we believe we are well positioned to unlock further value in our gold and copper assets going forward. At Harmony, everything begins with safety. We are embedding a proactive safety culture focused on leading indicators, as we continue on our journey to zero harm. Recent events remind us, we must do more, with urgency, with unity, and with unwavering resolve to achieve this objective. We are resolute in our determination to ensure that every Harmonite returns home safely every day. We are intentional about safety and take personal ownership to ensure that our workplaces are safe. The necessary systemic changes have been implemented throughout the company, and we continue to develop safety leadership through our humanistic culture transformation program called Thibakotsi. We're also conducting regular executive visible felt leadership initiatives, to reinforce the importance of safety. Fostering a safe culture, remains an ongoing journey for us. We are encouraged by the long-term improvement in our lost time injury frequency rate to 5.52 and a loss of life injury frequency rate of 0.02 in this half. This reinforces our belief that 0 loss of life is indeed possible. Moving to the operational highlights. Solid mining discipline has resulted in excellent grade control and consistent predictable production. Recovered grades at our South African underground operations increased to 6.4 grams a tonne. This performance has been driven primarily by our high-grade mines in Mponeng and Moab Khotsong. With good momentum and consistent delivery at most of our mines, we are pleased that the total production remains on track to meet the upper end of our full year guidance. Cash operating costs are predominantly rand-based and remain well managed. The majority of our costs comprise labor and electricity in South Africa. And a five-year wage deal was signed with our unions last year, while baseload energy supply from Eskom is regulated. As a result, our cost increases are largely fixed and predictable. Total cash operating costs in rand terms increased by 9% in the first half. This increase was in line with plan and mainly due to annual inflationary increases. The unit cost cash operating cost per kilogram increased by 14% to about ZAR 814,000 a kilogram or about USD 1,400 per ounce, due to inflation, planned lower production at Hidden Valley and lower production at the South African optimized assets. Royalties increased by 46% due to the higher gold prices which have improved revenue and also profitability. All-in sustaining costs remained under control and we are on track to meet full year guidance. This is mainly due to our embedded cost controls, high recovered grades and byproduct credits we received from uranium and silver production. Our all-in sustaining cost for the first half of the financial year was just over ZAR 970,000 a kilogram or about $1,690 per ounce. Our investment in quality ounces has moved us down the global cost curve. So Harmony is a transformed company delivering consistently higher margins. This is a result of disciplined capital allocation and sound cost controls. The Harmony portfolio has changed significantly having derisked and is delivering improved profitability. Our operating free cash flow margins at Hidden Valley have remained exceptional at 50% and this mine contributed 17% towards group operating free cash flow. Margins at the South African high-grade operations increased to 40% with these two operations now contributing half of group free cash flow generation. The South African surface operations continue to perform well with margins doubling to 34% year-on-year. The margins at our South African optimized portfolio remained flat at 11%. These mines continue to make a valuable contribution to our free cash flow and play a vital role in funding our growth aspirations. We at Harmony are on an exciting growth path and have clearly mapped how we will achieve our plans. Maintaining a disciplined and responsible approach to capital allocation is critical in creating long-term value. Not only does this drive growth, but it increases shareholder and stakeholder confidence. We have a balanced capital allocation framework focusing on five core areas to ensure alignment with our values and our goals. We will always prioritize safety as we work towards zero harm. This goes hand-in-hand with productivity enhancements and is in line with our belief that a safe mine is a profitable mine not the other way around. We have built a strong balance sheet which is in a net cash position and our major capital is directed towards derisking our portfolio by investing in our higher-grade surface and international assets, all aimed at increasing the quality of our ounces and improving our margins. This is evident in our expansion projects at Mponeng Moab Khotsong, our South African surface retreatment operations and Eva Copper. Value-accretive M&A is intrinsic to our strategy and we are actively pursuing opportunities to improve the quality of our portfolio further. We are in a position to pay a consistent dividend in line with our dividend policy, ensuring that we reward our shareholders alongside achieving our growth aspirations. Our approach to capital allocation is reaping the necessary rewards and we intend maintaining this disciplined approach. Our aim is to improve the quality and profitability of our portfolio over time, ensuring higher quality reserve conversions with improved free cash flow generation. This production profile illustrates the evolution of our production mix from where we are today to where we are planning to be in the future. As we mine out our optimized assets represented by the red section, the quality of our ounces improves. The introduction of near-term copper through our international projects will drive margins higher over time. These charts illustrate how the production changes -- production mix rather changes and how Harmony will become an even more profitable derisked and diversified company over time. Harmony has taken the strategic and deliberate decision to invest only in gold and copper. These complementary metals offer countercyclical diversification and provide a natural hedge against volatility. The combination offers a strategic balance between safe haven investment in gold and global demand for copper. They also offer synergies in production, particularly in geological proximity and copper-gold porphyries, like Wafi-Golpu. Both these metals have solid fundamentals driving demand and growth, which tie in well with our project pipeline. By focusing on these two metals, we are creating a focused, efficient and more profitable harmony with exciting long-term growth prospects. As we mine out the optimized assets and bring on quality replacement and growth ounces, we expect the contribution from these marginal assets to decrease to around 9% of production over time. In turn, our international gold-copper, the South African surface source operations will represent a far larger portion of production offering a lower-risk asset portfolio. This clearly illustrates how we have reengineered the company. To ensure we achieve this plan, we are allocating the bulk of our major capital towards these projects that will result in margin expansion. For this financial year, we are investing over ZAR2 billion at our high-grade projects, Moab Khotsong and Mponeng. We have over ZAR1 billion earmarked for our high-grade or high-margin surface operation projects, mainly at Mine Waste Solutions. The Hidden Valley mine has been allocated close to ZAR600 million and studies are underway to determine if we can extend the life further by expanding existing tailings storage facilities. This demonstrates our clear intention to improve the quality of our portfolio whilst paying dividends at the same time. The acquisitions of Mponeng, Moab Khotsong and Mine Waste Solutions were transformational for Harmony. This is evident in our overall improved results. We are, therefore, investing in these transformative assets to ensure they continue creating value for years to come. Phase 1 of Kareerand tailings storage facility expansion at Mine Waste Solutions was delivered on time and on budget. Phase 2 is currently underway and we expect to have it completed before the end of calendar year 2025. Mine Waste Solutions' steady-state production is over 100,000 ounces over its life per annum. The projects at Moab Khotsong and Mponeng are progressing well and will extend the lives of these mines to at least 20 years. These projects have added a combined 5.2 million ounces of gold reserves and will ensure steady-state production at Moab Khotsong of over 200,000 ounces and at Mponeng of over 250,000 ounces per year. Both mines will deliver an average recovered grade of about nine grams per tonne. These projects demonstrate our commitment to gold mining in South Africa ensuring that they continue delivering excellent margins at a low all-in sustaining cost for years to come. The feasibility study update at Eva Copper is progressing well. We have completed the technical aspects and are awaiting the final permitting amendments. Eva Copper is now expected to produce between 55,000 and 60,000 tonnes of copper per annum and 14,000 ounces of gold as a byproduct over its 15-year life of mine. Conceptually this translates to a mine of a similar size to some of our high-grade underground assets. The all-in sustaining cost is anticipated to be in the middle of the global industry cost curve and we are targeting first copper in 2029 calendar year subject to the completion of the study and Board approval. At Wafi-Golpu, negotiations of the special mining lease are ongoing. Our comprehensive project pipeline is well-sequenced and manageable. Our timing is deliberate and ensures project capital remains affordable and does not put pressure on the balance sheet or on our capacity to deliver successfully. These projects are catalysts to meaningfully sustain production and expand our margins while driving costs down. We have a clear strategy and a clearly mapped pathway to becoming a global leader in gold and copper mining, producing higher quality ounces and delivering higher shareholder returns. Allow me to hand over to my colleague and Financial Director, Boipelo Lekubo to discuss the financials. Over to you Boipelo.