UPDATE 1-Security worker killed in attack on Harmony Gold plant in South Africa

A security contractor was killed on Friday in an armed attack on a Harmony Gold plant about 330 km (205 miles) from Johannesburg, the latest fatal incident at a mining company in South Africa. High gold prices are making processing plants a target for criminals in South Africa, leading to a spate of armed robberies at mining operations.

No gold was stolen from Harmony's Kalgold plant in the attack in the early hours of Friday, the company said, adding the South African Police Service was investigating the incident. In a similar incident in October, armed men broke into a metallurgical plant owned by DRDGOLD, killing the gold miner's chief security officer and stealing calcine concentrate containing an estimated 17 kg of gold.

Escalating violence targeting some of its workers drove Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto to curtail operations at its South African unit Richards Bay Minerals, which mines ilmenite, rutile, and zircon, earlier this month. The price of gold - in U.S. dollars - has surged more than 15% this year, the strongest gain in the precious metal's value since 2010.

In a country on the brink of recession, with unemployment at an 11-year high, illegal gold mining and trading, and armed robberies of gold plants, are an attractive prospect for many. "A reaction unit supervisor employed by a contracted security company was fatally wounded in an armed attack on the plant... in the early hours of this morning," Harmony Gold said in a statement.

Due to the ongoing police investigation Harmony said it would give no further information on the incident for the time being.