JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed Harmony Gold on Wednesday announced that significant copper-gold mineralisation had been intercepted at its Kili Teke exploration project, in Papua New Guinea.
Initial diamond drill testing on the exclusively owned exploration licence areas was under way, with the assays from the first four holes showing higher-grade intervals of copper-gold mineralisation up to 202 m at 0.74% copper (Cu) and 0.57 g/t gold (Au).
“Given the extent of the surface copper-gold geochemical footprint yet to be tested, there is potential to develop this find into a major copper-gold deposit similar to Golpu, OK Tedi or Frieda River, which have resource cut-off grades of around 0.2% Cu,” Harmony CEO Graham Briggs said in a statement.
The gold miner, which was listed on the JSE and the NYSE, had nine operating underground and one openpit mine, as well as some surface operations in South Africa.
It also held, through the Morobe Mining Joint Ventures with Australian firm Newcrest Mining a 50% stake in the Hidden Valley openpit gold and silver mine in Papua New Guinea.
Further, Harmony and Newcrest, which each held a 50% interest in the Golpu project through the Wafi-Golpu Joint Venture, in Papua New Guinea, in December announced that they would spend $2.3-billion on developing the project, which had proceeded to the feasibility study level. Production was expected to start in 2020.
Harmony had a portfolio of other exploration projects in Papua New Guinea.