JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - Gold-miner Harmony Gold announced significant high-grade drill intercepts from its Morobe Mining joint venture in Papua New Guinea on Thursday.

Harmony CEO Graham Briggs said that results would have a "profoundly positive impact" on the resource base of the project.

The drill programme at the copper/gold project Golpu is testing an exploration target in the range of eight-million ounces to 18-million ounces of gold at 0,5 g/t to 0,7 g/t, and a 500-million tons of copper to 800-million tons of copper, at grades of between 0,7% and 1,1%.

The Golpu project could develop into one of the most significant copper/gold projects in Papua New Guinea with a possible size potential of 13-million ounce of gold and 6,5-million tons of copper, putting it on a similar scale to other major copper/gold projects like OK Tedi and the historic mine in Bougainville.

"This is a very exciting possibility for investors," said Briggs.

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