Name: Hidden Valley mine.

Location: The Hidden Valley operation is located 90 km south-west of Lae, Papua New Guinea’s (PNG’s) industrial hub and second-largest city, in Morobe province.

Controlling Company: The Hidden Valley mine is owned by the Hidden Valley Joint Venture (HVJV). The HVJV is one of three unincorporated JVs between subsidiaries of Newcrest Mining (50%) and Harmony Gold Mining Company (50%), referred to collectively as the Morobe Mining Joint Ventures.

Brief History: Construction of the Hidden Valley mine began in 2007, with the bulk of the work completed in mid-2009. First gold was poured in June 2009.

Brief Description: Hidden Valley is an openpit mine consisting of the Hidden Valley, Kaveroi and Hamata orebodies.

Products: Gold and silver doré.

Geology/Mineralisation: The major gold and silver deposits of the Morobe goldfield and Hidden Valley are hosted in the Wau Graben.

The mine comprises structurally controlled epithermal stockwork-style gold/silver deposits at Hidden Valley, Kaveroi and Hamata. The deposits are predominantly hosted in granite and metasedimentary rocks.

Reserves: Proven and probable gold reserves as at December 31, 2015, were estimated at 14-million tonnes grading 1.7 g/t of gold. Proven and probable silver reserves were estimated at 13-million dry tonnes grading 32 g/t of silver.

Resources: Gold mineral resources as at December 31, 2015, were estimated at 42-million dry tonnes grading 1.6 g/t of gold. Silver mineral resources were estimated at 40-million dry tonnes grading 29 g/t of silver.

Mining Method: Openpit.
Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Ore is delivered by truck to the Hamata and Hidden Valley crusher stations.
Hamata ore is delivered by conventional conveyor to the primary stockpile.

Hidden Valley ore is delivered through a 4.5 km overland pipe conveyor extending from the Kaveroi pit to the Hamata processing plant. The conveyor is a vital link between the mine and the processing plant, allowing the ore from the Kaveroi pit to be fed straight to the semiautogenous mill.

The processing plant uses conventional gravity and carbon- in-leach circuits for gold and a Merill Crowe circuit for silver.

Tailings from the processing plant are treated and stored in a purpose-built tailings storage facility (TSF). Hidden Valley is the first major mine in PNG to build a TSF. All mine tailings, the residues of the gold recovery process, are permanently stored in this facility.

Prospects: The HVJV announced in its December 2015 quarterly report that the JV partners had agreed to suspend all prestrip activities at Hidden Valley, unless metal prices improved significantly.

Going forward, the site will focus on safely operating at a free cash flow neutral or better position.

The JV partners are concurrently assessing all strategic options in relation to the future of the asset.

Contact: Harmony corporate and investor relations executive Marian van der Walt or Newcrest senior specialist of public affairs Jason Mills.

Contact Details:
Harmony,
tel +27 11 411 2000,
fax +27 11 692 3879,
email HarmonyIR@harmony.co.za, and
website https://www.harmony.co.za.

Newcrest Mining,
tel +61 3 9522 5690,
fax +61 3 9525 2996,
email jason.mills@newcrest.com.au, and
website http://www.newcrest.com.au.