GIVEN all that he has on his plate, it is perhaps surprising that Harmony Gold CEO Beyers Nel is still looking around for further merger and acquisition (M&A) opportunities. Harmony has also become very picky in what it will go for, which stands in sharp contrast to the gold group’s early days when it happily picked up the unwanted marginal gold assets being shed by the then South African gold majors. “We don’t really like Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold mines if you look at their cost profile. “We are mining them for cash and we are investing in ongoing capital development which we roll over if the gold price stays strong. Their margins are thin and we would have to react if the gold price came off.”This article was published in The Mining Yearbook 2025.