Gold hedging returns as Harmony, Acacia lock in profit margins

By Kevin Crowley
Bloomberg News
Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Harmony Gold Mining Co. and Acacia Mining Plc agreed to lock in profit margins at some of their African operations in a return to hedging strategies that undermined the industry during the metal's bull run in the 2000s.

Harmony, which gets 95 percent of its production from South Africa, hedged its local currency at between 15.59 rand ($1.03) and 18.60 rand per dollar for a third of its annual production, it said in a statement today. Acacia took out contracts known as zero-cost collars on 136,000 ounces of gold from Buzwagi, a Tanzanian mine, at $1,150 an ounce to $1,290 an ounce, it said in a separate statement.

Harmony and Acacia, among the world's highest-cost major gold miners a year ago, are trying to secure current profits linked to higher bullion prices and weak local currencies. Miners largely got out of hedges in bullion's decade-long bull run to 2011 as the rising spot price made many of the contracts unprofitable. ...

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