Strong rand means Harmony Gold will close higher cost mines within six months

The CEO said the gold digger will close "a couple" of mines where the grades are just to low to make ends meet

LONDON (Reuters) - 

South Africa's Harmony Gold plans to close "a couple" of mines which have low grade ore or are too expensive because of the strong rand, Chief Executive Graham Briggs said on Wednesday.

"With the costs you've got in underground operations, at (grades of) 3 grams a tonne, you battle to make ends meet," Briggs told the RBC gold conference in London.

"There will be closures, probably a couple of closures in the next six months or so."

He said Harmony, the world's fifth biggest gold producer, would likely close relatively small mines with about 35-50,000 tonnes of ore output per month.

Briggs said work was progressing with its 40% owned Rand Uranium company, which aims to eventually produce 2.2 million pounds of uranium a year.

There was interest from third parties on financing a processing plant due to cost R5 billion, with some parties seeking offtake agreements, he said.

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

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