Much Ado about nothing
aber wenn man sich HAR ./. GFI streiten will........................
gogh
Aus BUSINESS-REPORT vom 30.03.05
Harmony backtracks on size of its gold reserves
=====================================
Harmony Gold Mining, which has made a R32.6 billion hostile bid for bigger rival Gold Fields, said it incorrectly classified 8.3 million ounces of gold as reserves this month.
Harmony reclassified the amount as inferred resources rather than the inferred reserves it called them in a March 10 statement.
Harmony made the change to "remain compliant with the guidelines attached to the South African code for reporting of mineral resources", known as the Samrec code, it said last week.
Gold Fields, which pointed out the error, has attacked inconsistencies in Harmony's reporting of its reserves, which range from 39 million ounces in a consultant's report a year ago to 62 million ounces in its offer document.
Harmony's latest calculation puts reserves at 52.1 million ounces.
"It was an honest to goodness mistake," Harmony marketing director Ferdi Dippenaar said yesterday.
"Reserve was a term that slipped through."
Gold that can be profitably mined is termed "reserves", while "resources" refer to gold in the ground that may be too costly to extract.
The 8.3 million ounces of gold would be worth $3.5 billion at yesterday's price of $427 (R2 710) an ounce.
Gold Fields, the second-largest gold producer locally, on March 17 sent a letter of complaint to the JSE Securities Exchange and to the Securities Regulation Panel.
The letter said Harmony broke Samrec's rules on March 10 by reporting the 8.3 million ounces as reserves.
"Harmony's stated declared and audited reserves play a key role in how Gold Fields' shareholders value the hostile bid ratio," Terence Goodlace, Gold Fields' senior vice-president of strategic planning, said in the letter.
"In this regard, Harmony has proved evasive and misleading when announcing their reserves position publicly."
The Securities Regulation Panel on March 23 sent a note to Harmony's lawyers asking them "as a matter of urgency" to tell Harmony to "comply with the relevant provisions of the Samrec code if the contentions made by Gold Fields are in fact correct".
A copy of the letter was obtained by Bloomberg News.
Gold Fields spokesperson Willie Jacobsz said his company also received a copy of the panel's letter.
Harmony has not yet released an audited statement of its gold reserves, compiled by independent SRK Consulting.
The report, which was to be released in December, was "in the process of being filed" with the JSE, Harmony said on March 24.
The panel said the delay in releasing the reserve report was "unacceptable" and "may be having the effect of creating a false market in Harmony's shares".
Harmony would include the 8.3 million ounces in its mine plans, Dippenaar said.
Harmony shares fell R1.67 to close at R50.33, while Gold Fields fell R1.40 to close at R73.35. The gold mining sector declined 1.39 percent.
Meanwhile, Sapa reports that strike negotiations between Harmony Gold and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) stalled yesterday because Harmony was "not being serious", NUM general secretary Gwede Mantashe said.
"They [Harmony] sent some junior officer with a written letter to read to NUM. The problem with dealing with a messenger is that you can't engage," Mantashe said.
Management and the union will meet again today.