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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The gold resource at South African miner Harmony Gold's joint-venture (JV) Wafi-Golpu copper/gold project, in Papua New Guinea, had increased to 16-million ounces.
The 50:50 JV project with Australia's Newcrest Mining had also seen an increase in its copper resource to 4,8-million tons, which brought the total gold-equivalent resource to 38,5-million ounces, stated Harmony.
"We have now added significant size to what is one of the highest-grade copper/gold porphyries in South East Asia and potential for further growth in this mineral resource remains highly promising," said CEO Graham Briggs.
The increase in the mineral resource was owing to the discovery of a new zone of mineralisation directly adjacent to the previously defined Golpu resource.
Contained metal at the Golpu prospect alone had increased to 8,8-million ounces of gold, up from the 2007 estimate of three-million ounces, while the copper resource had increased from 1,8-million tons to 4,8-million tons.
"These results have a profoundly positive impact on our future resource base and drilling results continue to prove that investing in exploration was a very good long term decision," stated Briggs.
Over the broader JV project area, including the Wafi gold deposit, a number of targets have been earmarked for follow-up testing, with several that already contain significant gold intercepts, added the gold miner.
