Frieda one of region’s premier greenfield copper projects

Business, Main Stories

THE completion of a pre-feasibility study (PFS) has placed the Frieda copper/gold project in Papua New Guinea as one of the Asia Pacific’s premier green-field copper projects with a potential for a multi-decade low operating cost mine.
Xstrata, which funded and managed PFS, also highlighted the Frieda project, with a 20-year mine life, had an output averaging 246,000 tonnes per annum of  copper and 379,000 ounces per annum of gold in its first eight years.
This gives Frieda the potential to be places in the top 15 of the world’s current copper mines and amongst the lowest in operating costs due in part to low waste.
Owned by Xstrata (81.82%) and Highlands Pacific (18.18%), Frieda is one of the region’s undeveloped copper/gold resources just 170km from the Porgera gold mine.
Highland’s managing director John Gooding said Frieda is a stand out as it had  the potential to operate as one of the world’s largest and lowest operating-cost emerging mine.