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History

Harmony was incorporated and registered as a public company in South Africa on 25 August 1950 and later became a Randgold-managed company, exploiting the single Harmony mine lease. In 1995, Harmony was recreated as a separate entity following the winding up of Randgold.

Harmony’s operations have grown significantly since 1995, expanding from a single, lease-bound mining operation into an independent, world-class gold producer. The group received additional mining rights in the Free State, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and North West province in South Africa when it acquired Lydex in 1997, Evander in 1998, Kalgold in 1999, Randfontein in 2000, ARMgold in 2003 and Avgold in 2004.

Mining operations are conducted through various subsidiaries. Harmony's principal subsidiaries are Randfontein Estates, Evander Gold Mines, ARMgold/Harmony Freegold JV, ARMgold, Avgold Kalahari Goldridge Mining Company and Harmony Gold (Australia) (Pty) Limited. All are wholly-owned, direct subsidiaries incorporated in South Africa.

Company development timeline

1950

August: Harmony incorporated and registered as a public company in South Africa.

1994

Management agreement between Randgold & Exploration Company Limited (Randgold) and Harmony cancelled and replaced with service agreement.

1997

Service agreement between Randgold and Harmony cancelled resulting in Harmony operating as a completely independent gold mining company.

Acquisition of Lydenburg Exploration Limited (Lydex).

1998

June: Acquisition of Bissett gold mine from the liquidators of Rea Gold corporation.

July: The acquisition of Evander Gold Mines Limited.

1999

October: Acquisition of Kalgold and West Rand Consolidated Mines Limited.

2000

March: Acquisition of Randfontein Estates Ltd.

2001

April: Acquisition of the Elandskraal mining operations from AngloGold Limited.

April: Acquisition of New Hampton Goldfields Limited.

September: Acquisition of 31.8% of the issued share capital of Bendigo Mining NL.

December: Acquisition of 50% of the issued share capital of Freegold Proprietary Limited (Freegold) which purchased the Freegold operations and certain other assets.

2002

April: Acquisition of Hill 50 Limited.

May: Acquisition of 32.5% of the ordinary share capital of Highland Gold Limited.

October: Joint acquisition by Freegold of St. Helena Mine from Gold Fields.

November: Harmony lists on the New York Stock Exchange.

November: Acquisition of 21% of the ordinary share capital of High River Gold Limited.

2003

January: Randfontein, entered into agreement with Africa Vanguard Resources (Pty) Ltd (AVR), in terms of which Randfontein sold 26% of its mineral rights in respect of Doornkop Mining Area to AVR. Randfontein and AVR entered into a JV agreement to jointly conduct mining operations at Doornkop.

February: Harmony announces offer for Abelle Limited.

May: Announcement of merger with ARMgold.

May: Announcement of an acquisition by Freegold of 34.5% of the shares of Anglovaal Mining Limited (Avmin) in which Harmony and ARMgold each have 50%.

August: Shareholder approval of the merger between Harmony and ARMgold for which 64,000,000 Harmony shares were issued to ARMgold, in the ratio of 2 Harmony shares for every 3 ARMgold shares.

August: The arrangements between Randfontein and AVR were implemented, and purchase price paid as per the agreement drawn up in January 2003.

August: Highland Gold at GBP2.05 per share valuing the shareholding at ZAR830m.

October: Harmony disposed of its 17.0% shareholding in High River Gold at C$1.75 per share valuing the shareholding at ZAR156.7m.

November: Harmony enters in to an agreement to dispose of its wholly-owned subsidiary Kalgold to Afrikander Lease Limited (Aflease). The conditions precedent was not met and the contract was subsequently cancelled on March 15, 2004.

November: Abelle enters into negotiations with Legend Mining Limited (Legend) whereby Legend offered to purchase the Gidgee gold project.

November: Announcement that: Avmin will dispose of its entire 42.2% interest in Avgold to Harmony, Harmony will dispose of its Kalplats platinum discovery and associated mineral rights to Avmin.

2004

March: Harmony completes disposal of 100% of the issued and outstanding shares of Bissett to Rice Lake Joint Venture Inc, a joint venture between San Gold and Gold City.

April: Harmony acquired the entire shareholding or ordinary shares in Avgold Limited. Harmony also disposed on it Kalplats platinum project. In May 2004, Avgold became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Harmony.

April: Harmony announced a joint venture with Network Healthcare Holdings. The Joint Venture company, Health-Manco, provides health care services for the Harmony Group.

May: Harmony announced that it had raised ZAR1.7bn by way of issue of convertible bonds to international investors.

October: Harmony launches proposal to merge with Gold Fields.

2005

February: Harmony announced that it had been approached by the financial advisor to a consortium being formed to create a new black empowerment company proposing to purchase Harmony’s 20% stake in ARM for approximately ZAR1.1bn. The consortium is expected to be led by African Rainbow Minerals & Exploration Investments (Proprietary) Limited, a company affiliated with Harmony’s chairman, Patrice Motsepe.

November: Harmony sells off all Gold Fields shares.

2006

March: Harmony acquires a 29.2% stake in Western Areas (converted into Gold Fields shares end of 2006)

December: Harmony closes its Musuku Refinery.

2007

March: Harmony announces intended buy back of the royalty rights of Hidden Valley, PNG, from Rio Tinto.

July: Harmony sells South Kal Mine operations in Australia to Dioro Exploration, and ownership is transferred on 30 November 2007.

September: Harmony signs deal with Pamodzi Gold for the sale of the Orkney mines in South-Africa.

November: Harmony signs letter of intent to sell Mount Magnet operations in Australia to Monarch Gold Mining Company.

December: Harmony announces agreement with Pamodzi Resources Fund to form a new gold and uranium company by selling the Cooke assets into a special purpose vehicle, leading to the establishment of Rand Uranium as a stand-alone company.

2008

February: Harmony’s transaction with Pamodzi Gold is officially concluded.

March: Harmony’s buy back of the Hidden Valley royalty rights concluded.

April: Harmony announces the Morobe Mining Joint Ventures in partnership with Newcrest Mining Limited of Australia

July: Harmony’s sale of Mount Magnet to Monarch cancelled; assets placed on care and maintenance, and sale process resumed.

July: Ministerial approval was granted by the PNG government for the arrangements between Harmony and Newcrest regarding the Morobe Mining Joint Ventures in PNG.

August: The Morobe Mining Joint Ventures officially begins with ministerial approval having been received from the Papua New Guinea government.

November: The Randfontein transaction becomes effective.

December: Capital raising by issuing of 10 504 795 shares.

2009

January: Two new general managers were appointed – at the Virginia and the Evander operations – in line with the strategy to strengthen and develop Harmony’s management team and controls.

March: New general manager appointed at Elandsrand now (Kusasalethu), as Harmony continues to strengthen its leadership team.

March: In co-ordination with the South African Police Services (SAPS), a significant exercise aimed at the prevention of criminal mining was undertaken at Harmony’s Free State operations over a period of 10 days. Additional plans and procedures were also put in place to mitigate the impact of illegal mining.

March: A further R938 million was raised, before costs, through the placement of 7 540 646 shares between 10 February 2009 and 6 March 2009 at an average share price of R124.

April: New general manager appointed at Bambanani.

April: Second and final tranche of the proceeds from the sale of the Randfontein Cooke assets received to give a total consideration for this transaction of US$209 million.

May: The proceeds from the capital raising and the Rand Uranium transaction used to repay Harmony’s convertible bond and its major short-term debt.

2010

February: Elandsrand was formally renamed Kusasalethu.