[miningmx.com] – HARMONY Gold said a discovery at its Kili Teke Exploration Project on Papua New Guinea had “potential” to become a copper/gold mine to match its Golpu prospect which is also located on the Australasian island.
The South African gold producer said it had intersected “a highly significant zone of copper-gold mineralisation following diamond drill testing. Assays from the first four holes returned 0.74% and 0.57g/t copper and gold mineralisation respectively at 202 metres underground.
“Our current resources are finite and it is essential to have a project pipeline that balances early-stage and more immediate prospects so as to replace reserves mined,’ said Harmony CEO, Graham Briggs.
“In an environment where there is very little being spent on exploration and with the paucity of new major copper and gold discoveries, the results coming from this grassroots prospect are very encouraging.
“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. New discoveries are one of the best avenues to create shareholder value,’ he said.
