Report of independent assurance

Independent Assurance Report to the Directors of Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited

Introduction

We have been engaged by the directors of Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (“Harmony”) to perform an independent assurance engagement in respect of certain Identified Sustainability Information included in Harmony Gold Mining Company’s Sustainable Development Report 2009 for the year ended 30 June 2009 (“the Report”). This assurance report is produced in accordance with the terms of our engagement letter dated 21 July 2009.

Scope and subject matter

The following Identified Sustainability Information reported in the Report was selected for an expression of limited assurance:

HDSA procurement expenditure in South African Rand (Sustainable development priorities).
Total number of significant environmental incidents (Environmental performance).
Total energy consumption in GJ (Environmental performance).
Total CO₂ emissions in tonnes (Environmental performance).
Total amount of water used for primary activities in m³ (Environmental performance,).
Total cyanide usage in tonnes (Environmental performance).
Total number of fatalities (Key features, Key features, Sustainable development priorities, Safety in South Africa).
Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) (Sustainable development priorities , Safety and occupational health).
Total number of new noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) cases reported (Occupational health in South Africa).
Total number of new tuberculosis (TB) cases identified (Occupational health in South Africa).
Total number of new silicosis cases identified (Occupational health in South Africa).
Harmony’s assertion that it has achieved a B+ Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) application level (GRI reporting).

Our responsibilities do not extend to any other information.

Responsibilities of the directors

Harmony’s directors are responsible for the preparation and presentation of the Identified Sustainability Information in accordance with internal corporate policies and procedures, and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) new generation (G3) guidelines.

Responsibility of the independent assurance provider

Our responsibility is to conduct a limited assurance engagement and, based on our assurance procedures, report our conclusions to the directors.

We conducted our engagement in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000, Assurance engagements other than audits or reviews of historical financial information issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. This Standard requires inter alia that we comply with ethical requirements.

Summary of work performed

Our procedures included examination, on a test basis, of evidence relevant to the Identified Sustainability Information. It also included an assessment of the significant estimates and judgements made by the directors in the preparation of the Identified Sustainability Information.

Our work consisted of:

Reviewing processes that Harmony has in place for determining the Identified Sustainability Information included in the Sustainable Development Report.
Obtaining an understanding of the systems used to generate, aggregate and report the Identified Sustainability information at the sampled operations.
Conducting interviews with management at the sampled operations and at corporate head office.
Evaluating the data generation and reporting processes against the reporting criteria.
Performing key controls testing.
Testing the accuracy of data reported on a sample basis.

We believe that the evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our limited assurance conclusion. Harmony’s internal corporate reporting criteria and the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) new generation (G3) guidelines were applied for evaluating the Identified Sustainability Information. The “Glossary of terms and acronyms” provides detail on the applied definitions of the Identified Sustainability Information.

Inherent limitations

Non-financial data is subject to more inherent limitations than financial data, given both the nature and the methods used for determining, calculating, sampling or estimating such data. Qualitative interpretations of relevance, materiality and the accuracy of data are subject to individual assumptions and judgements.

Conversion factors used to derive CO₂ emissions and energy used from fuel and electricity consumed, is based upon information and factors derived by independent third parties. Our assurance work has not included an examination of the derivation of those factors and other third party information.

We have not carried out any work on data reported for prior reporting periods, nor in respect of future projections and targets. We have not conducted any work outside of the agreed scope and therefore restrict our opinion to the Identified Sustainability Information.

Conclusion

In our opinion, nothing has come to our attention causing us to believe that the Identified Sustainability Information for the year ended 30 June 2009 is misstated in any material respects.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc.
Wessie van der Westhuizen
Director
12 October 2009

^ Return to the top

IN THIS SECTION: