Water is a critical resource for environmental, social and economic wellbeing in the countries where we operate. We are committed to sustainable water management
and long-term resource stewardship, including proactively identifying and addressing water-related risks.
Governance and oversight
As part of our process of managing our water-related KPIs, Harmony holds monthly meetings with all sites to review water use and identify areas of concern. A specialist consultancy provides detailed reports on water and energy usage, and we investigate deviations over 10%. Harmony has a Water Digital Twin for our South Africa operations.
Water stewardship is embedded in our sustainability framework. Our activities are informed by impact assessments, allowing us to understand and develop measures to reduce our impacts on water resources. This is underpinned by our proactive risk management approach, which includes water balances optimisation, digitisation in South Africa for real-time monitoring and agile responses, and data assurance through monthly and quarterly reviews and external audits. We monitor and report our performance in line with the CDP water programme.
Regional executives support regional environment and sustainability teams in overseeing our water management initiatives. Site management teams are responsible for daily water requirements and associated water security and related risks. Our water community-of-practice brings together site leads to craft the Water Roadmap with the water projects to support the water ambition, track progress, remain compliant with regulations, share best practices and drive innovation.
Related policies
Performance FY25
total water recycled (000m3)
103 535
Reduction in potable water consumption
13%
Potable water consumption (000m3)
18 381
Water consumption intensity (000m3/t treated)
0.76
Our strategy: Recognising water as a shared vulnerability
Given the high consumption of water in mining, and growing concerns around water availability and conservation, we work to use less water and improve efficiency. This helps conserve local water sources and reduce the environmental and social impacts associated with our mining activities.
Meeting our water-related conditions of operation
We operate in compliance with host country regulation, including obtaining permits and licences and meeting associated conditions. These permits and licences outline water extraction limits and water quality limits for discharges and for the surrounding catchment areas.
We conduct surface and groundwater quality monitoring, upstream and downstream of our operations. As set out by our regulatory obligations and rigorous internal standards, we are committed to zero unauthorised water discharges for our operations.
In FY25, we received no fines or penalties related to water use or quality transgressions.
Our water management programme
Our water management programme, updated in 2025, recognises our diverse hydrological, social and regulatory contexts, enabling appropriate responses to site-specific water challenges. This includes water-stressed areas in South Africa and Australia, where efficiency, conservation and equitable access are critical. It also includes a high-rainfall setting in Papua New Guinea, where we manage excess water and run-off quality, and maintain infrastructure resilience.
Conserving water and reducing impacts to surrounding users
In line with our water ambition roadmap, we manage our impact on water catchments by:
- Reducing potable water consumption through improved efficiencies, reuse and recycling, which reduces supply pressure on local water utilities and aids their resilience to climate change
- Meeting permitted water extraction limits at Hidden Valley mine
- Managing water responsibly to achieve zero unauthorised discharges
- Reducing costs and increasing revenue with water treatment plants
- Returning treated water to source and securing potable water for South African host communities’ basic needs
- Beneficiating water in partnership with our South African peers and utilities
- Identifying sources of excess water for treatment to potable water standards for consumption at our South African operations.
Securing a reliable water supply and continuing our recycling play a key role in addressing scarcity, meeting regulatory standards and reinforcing our commitment to responsible practices. Additionally, water recycling supports social investment strategies and our water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) programmes in South Africa. We have developed a water ambition roadmap, approved in 2025, to plot the required actions to reduce our dependency on external potable resources by 80% by FY34 through water efficiency measures, recycling and implementation of water treatment projects.
Proactive water risk planning for reliable operations
We embed a risk-aware approach across our operations, allowing the business to respond rapidly to conditions that effect access to water or the functioning of our facilities, which may result in a degradation of water resources and aquatic ecosystems. We execute our water management programme in a way that enhances our water governance to address our water-related risks and opportunities.
By executing our water management roadmap, we aim to improve water security and reduce our
reliance on municipal water systems in South Africa. We achieve this by:
- Protecting and improving the quality of our process water using water treatment and reverse osmosis plants
- Reusing and recycling water through water conservation and demand management initiatives
- Identifying where potable water use can be replaced with process water
- Incorporating climate change mitigation and adaptation considerations, including optimisation to secure supply during a protracted drought.
Planting trees for water
In South Africa, we partnered with iWater to assess the use of biochar to encourage tree growth for the remediation of soil and water at the Kareerand TSF. Harmony plants trees to support pollution plume migration, with geohydrologists confirming that mass planting improves groundwater quality.
To date, we have planted over 6 000 trees at Mponeng.
Collaboration and partnerships
We partner with government departments, regulators and municipalities to:
- Proactively address the risks and opportunities associated with water supply and management
- Routinely update regulators on our water management performance
- Outline ongoing monitoring programmes and potential remedial actions when required.
In South Africa, Harmony supports municipalities in our mining jurisdictions to refurbish, maintain and operate their wastewater treatment plants, preventing raw sewage from polluting water resources and affecting local communities. We engage with users through regional water management agencies, government task teams and working groups and local forums. At Hidden Valley, we liaise with communities downstream of our operations and provide quarterly updates on our environmental performance and risks.
Explore related Case studies
Further information
Additional performance-related discussions and data may be found in these publications.