BLBG:Harmony Says Golpu May Produce 490,000 Ounces Gold A Year
Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HAR), Africa’s third-largest producer of the metal, said the Wafi Golpu deposit it owns with Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM) in Papua New Guinea could produce 490,000 ounces of gold and 290,000 metric tons of copper a year.
The Golpu reserve probably contains about 12.4 million ounces of gold and 5.4 million tons of copper and first production could start in 2019 if a mine is built at a cost of about $4.85 billion, Johannesburg-based Harmony said in a statement today.
The company, which mines more than 90 percent of its metal in South Africa, is expanding output through projects in the continent’s biggest economy and ramping up production at its existing Hidden Valley venture with Newcrest in Papua New Guinea.
Harmony estimates it will be able to fund its share of the cost of the Wafi-Golpu mine largely from operating cashflow, it said. Papua New Guinea now represents about 42 percent of Harmony’s metal reserves, compared with 11 percent in June last year, Harmony said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Carli Cooke in Johannesburg at clourens@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Viljoen at jviljoen@bloomberg.net
