Harmony cuts debt 27%

Harmony Gold Mining repays R1.1 billion of debt, or 27 percent of its total.

Johannesburg - Harmony Gold Mining, which gets about 95 percent of its production from South Africa, repaid R1.1 billion ($77 million) of debt, or 27 percent of its total, as a plunging local currency relative to the dollar boosted cash flow.

Harmony “benefits from the weak rand, which more than offsets the impact of the low US dollar gold price,” the Westonaria, South Africa-based company said in a statement Wednesday. The company had R4.1 billion of total debt at September 30.

Gold in US dollars, in which Harmony receives its revenue, has fallen 9.9 percent this year on speculation the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates, reducing demand for the haven precious metal.

In South African rand, the currency that the producer pays its costs, bullion has climbed 12 percent this year. It currently trades at 491 870 rand a kilogram, just 4 percent below its record high in September.

Harmony’s mining operations are performing “in line with their plans” this year, the company said. The stock rose 6.5 percent to R9.38 a share at 1:12 p.m. in Johannesburg, the best performer in the five-member FTSE/JSE Africa Gold Mining Index on Wednesday.

Former Sasol executive Peter Steenkamp will replace Graham Briggs as chief executive officer from Jan. 1, Harmony said last month.

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