JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The JSE has given gold major Harmony Gold and its sponsor JP Morgan a "slap on the wrist" for non-compliance in announcing its Golpu copper/gold strike in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Harmony Gold CEO Graham Briggs said in a Stock Exchange News Service (Sens) announcement on April 22 that Golpu could develop into one of the most significant copper/gold projects in PNG, with a possible size potential of 13-million ounces of gold and 6,5-million tons of copper

He added that this could put Golpu on a scale similar to other major highly regarded PNG copper-gold projects like OK Tedi and the historic mine in Bougainville.

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

But both the company and its sponsor, the JSE said, had failed to provide the name of the competent person who oversaw the drilling and whether or not that competent person had consented to the announcement being made.

JSE GM corporate finance Annalie De Bruyn told Mining Weekly Online that Harmony was accountable and sponsor JP Morgan responsible for the non-disclosure and therefore the non- compliance.

Harmony investor relations officer Esha Brijmohan referred Mining Weekly Online to JP Morgan, whose Ruben Govender described the failure to disclose the name of the competent person and his consent as "an oversight on our part".

"It's something that slipped through the cracks. We had a discussion with the JSE and we said, 'oops, we're sorry'," Govender said.

De Bruyn said that the former JSE practice of vetting all announcements prior to their release was terminated two years ago, when that responsibility was passed on to sponsors.

"It's now the responsibility of the sponsor to see that all the announcements comply with the listing requirements. We're all human and they obviously let that one slip through," she said.

In Thursday's make-good announcement on Sens, Harmony named Greg Job as the competent person who had gone unnamed and added that Job had given his consent to the announcement.

Job is Harmony's South East Asia new business executive with overall accountability for the Golpu project's compliance with the South African code for the reporting of exploration results, mineral resources and ore reserves.

Golpu is situated in the 3 000 km² Morobe area of PNG, which already hosts the Harmony-Newcrest Hidden Valley mine, which, at full production, is set to produce 255 000 oz of gold and four million ounces of silver a year.

Hidden Valley, which is ramping up towards full production, is a strategic geopolitial asset for Harmony, which is wanting to reduce the full exposure it currently has to South Africa and the strong local currency.

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