JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's Harmony Gold, the world's fifth-largest gold producer, said on Wednesday that output for its 2012 financial year should rise to between 1.45 million ounces and 1.55 million ounces from around 1.3 million in 2011.

That could be difficult to reach as the group in the last financial year had to scale back its original targets because of safety stoppages and underperformance at some shafts.

Harmony also said in a presentation to investors on its web site that its capital expenditure for the next financial year was forecast to rise 16 percent to R3.643-billion.

The company said that a pre-feasibility study for its promising Wafi-Golpu project in Papua New Guinea, which it shares in a 50/50 joint venture with Australia's Newcrest, should be completed early next year and that things were on track to have the mine up and running by 2017.

The project's production range was pegged in the presentation at 600,000 to 800,000 ounces of gold per year, up from previous estimates of 300 000 to 700 000 ounces, while Wafi-Golpu's copper output was seen at between 300 000 and 500 000 tonnes per year.

Harmony said it was still aiming eventually for production of 2 million ounces of gold per year, 1.4 million from South Africa, 400 000 ounces from its half of Wafi-Golpu and 200,000 ounces from its Hidden Valley mine in Papua New Guinea.

Last week Harmony reported a 67 percent drop in quarterly profit, falling short of market expectations as power rates, new equipment and the costs of a troubled mine shaft hit its bottom line.

Its share price was felled last Friday by reports that the government in Papua New Guinea would move to transfer mineral ownership from the state to local communities but Harmony's chief executive Graham Briggs said he did not see it as a threat and that it was electioneering ahead of polls in 2012.

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