Harmony Gold Mining Co., Africa’s third-largest gold producer, plans to restart dividend payments in the next fiscal year after a hiatus of more than 55 months.

“We’ll probably get something in front of the board in June,” Chief Executive Officer Graham Briggs said today in an interview in Hollywood, Florida. The payments to shareholders are likely to begin in the company’s next financial year, which starts July 1, he said.

Briggs has spent almost two years stabilizing operations at Harmony by cutting unprofitable output, paring the workforce and repaying debt. The Johannesburg-based company plans to boost output by more than a third to 2.2 million ounces in 2012 to benefit from gold prices trading near a record as investors buy the precious metal as a buffer against global market turmoil.

The company will have repaid all its debt by June, said Briggs, who was in Florida attending the BMO Capital Markets Global Metals & Mining conference.

Harmony’s American depositary receipts, each representing one ordinary share, fell 17 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $12.88 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange trading. The company has a market value of $5.42 billion.

Harmony is scouting for joint-venture opportunities and acquisitions in regions including Africa and Southeast Asia and has already conducted due-diligence studies and visited sites of some prospective targets, Briggs said. While the focus was on buying operating mines, the four-month rally in bullion and gold- producer stocks may prompt Harmony to shift its search to exploration companies, he said.

Possible Acquisitions

“We’re looking in the gold regions, West Africa through Tanzania and into the Congo,” Briggs said. “There are good deposits there.”

Harmony would consider tapping equity markets for cash if the company had a suitable investment to finance, Briggs said. Deals also could be funded with cash and stock, he said.

Harmony has seen a greater level of interest from companies wanting to buying gold-producers’ shares in recent months as investors look to add bullion to their portfolios, Briggs said.

Gold has risen 39 percent in the past four months in New York, settling today at $995 an ounce, while the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Gold & Silver Index of 16 producers has almost doubled.

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