(Corrects pvs quarter figure, this quarter calculation)
* CEO softens tone on safety drive
* March output around 283,000 oz-Reuters calculation
* Harmony shares lose almost 2 percent
By Ed Stoddard
JOHANNESBURG, April 13 – Harmony Gold, South
Africa’s third-largest gold producer, on Friday became the
latest miner to report a sharp drop in output in the first 3
months of 2012 because of an increase in government-ordered
safety stoppages.
Harmony’s share price extended losses on the news to be
almost 2 percent lower at 1140 GMT, underperforming gains of
0.12 percent on the Top 40 index of blue-chip stocks..
Harmony’s announcement that output would be 18 percent lower
compared to the previous quarter came a day after official data
showed gold output in South Africa had fallen 11.5 percent in
volume terms in February on an annual basis.
Platinum output in the same period fell almost 50 percent.
Continued…
