Harmony Gold plunges despite higher full-year profit after warning on costs

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Harmony Gold (NYSE:HMY [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/HMY]) -7.6% pre-market Thursday after warning it expects costs to climb by 9%-16% [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-28/harmony-shares-drop-as-south-african-gold-miner-warns-on-costs] due to "inflationary realities and updated mine plans" in the current fiscal year starting July 1, after surging 17% in the previous fiscal year.

Harmony (NYSE:HMY [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/HMY]) forecast capital spending for this year will rise to nearly 13B rand ($734M) from nearly 11B rand in FY 2025, driven by projects to extend the lives of its flagship operations in South Africa and replacing essential machinery at a mine in Papua New Guinea.

The company reported [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4490017-harmony-gold-mining-reports-fy-results] headline earnings of 23.37 rand/share ($1.33) in the year ended June 30 and said a 27% increase in average gold prices to $2,620/oz and improved grades at its South African mines helped offset a 5% drop in production to 1.48M oz, citing bad weather and safety-related stoppages.

For the year ahead, Harmony (HMY [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/HMY]) said it expects to produce 1.4M-1.5M oz of gold.

The company said it expects to complete the $1B purchase of MAC Copper in October and is nearing a final decision on whether to develop the Eva Copper project.

MORE ON HARMONY GOLD MINING

* Harmony Gold Mining Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript [https://seekingalpha.com/article/4817493-harmony-gold-mining-company-limited-hmy-q4-2025-earnings-call-transcript]
* Harmony Gold Mining: The Copper Pivot Isn't Enough For A Buy, Yet [https://seekingalpha.com/article/4809882-harmony-gold-mining-the-copper-pivot-isnt-enough-for-a-buy-yet-hold-for-now]
* A Major Lender's Bridge On The Way To Harmony Gold's Acquisition Of MAC Copper: Robust Value In Sight [https://seekingalpha.com/article/4791239-a-major-lenders-bridge-on-the-way-to-harmony-golds-acquisition-of-mac-copper-robust-value-in-sight]