By ZARA KANU
HARMONY Gold, the world’s sixth biggest gold producer, is now in the process of selecting a partner for its Hidden Valley and Wafi-Golpu projects, chief executive Graham Briggs said.
Mr Briggs also disclosed Harmony had no plan to sell its Papua New Guinea assets because it intended to grow its presence in the country.
He said partnering with another equally capable miner was behind the company’s strategy to grow in PNG.
He had flagged the partnership process for Harmony Gold in PNG for some time and an announcement was expected this quarter.
“The partnership process is going ahead. At the moment, we’ve aimed at retaining 50% of PNG.
“The 50% is also a bit of an enticement, because then, we would discuss with the potential partners on control or operations of various assets, or the entire lot,” he was quoted to have said.
The newly-appointed CEO said: “The intent is we want to grow in that region (Pacific) … we like it geologically.”
Mr Briggs, who was speaking on the Money Web Power Hour week nightly radio show, said the partnership strategy was consistent with his “back to the basics” global strategy for Harmony Gold.
The company had recently secured a two billion rand (K862 million) debt facility from South Africa’s Ned Bank for the development of the Hidden Valley gold mine which was well into its construction phase at present.
The first gold pour is expected in March of 2009.
Mr Briggs estimated that the feasibility study for Wafi Golpu would cost US$100 million (K294 million) and a mine about US$1 billion (K2.94 billion).