JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s Harmony Gold said on Thursday it swung into quarterly profit as production inched up and a weaker rand currency offset declines in the dollar price of bullion.
Headline earnings per share – which strips off certain one-off items – reached 17 cents in the three months to December from a loss of 1.20 rand in the previous quarter.
Production in the period rose for a third consecutive quarter by 2 percent to 287,074 ounces, the company said in a statement.
South African mining companies benefit from mostly cheaper costs because they are paid in the rand and earn higher income from sales of their commodities in dollars.