lgl possible partner with harmony in png

Harmony Gold are looking for a JV partner to

DJ Barrick, Lihir Likely Interested In Harmony PNG Gold Assets


Last Update: 3:04 AM ET Nov 1, 2007Print E-mail Subscribe to RSS Disable Live Quotes

SYDNEY, Nov 01, 2007 (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) -- South African miner Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY) is likely to attract interest from Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX), Lihir Gold Ltd. (LGL.AU) and possibly Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM.AU) to buy into its Papua New Guinea assets, analysts said Thursday.
Harmony, which posted a lower-than-expected first quarter loss Wednesday, said it wanted to find partners for its PNG assets, which comprise the advanced Hidden Valley gold venture and the Wafi Golpu copper gold project, while keeping a 50% equity interest.
Harmony has total gold reserves in Papua New Guinea of 4.2 million troy ounces, with resources of 15.1 million ounces. It also has reserves of copper, silver and molybdenum. Hidden mine is slated to produce around 300,000 troy ounces from early 2009, with a mine life of 10 years.
Barrick Gold is already active in PNG, last week adding to its operations there with the purchase of the Kainantu gold mine from Highlands Pacific Ltd. for US$141.5 million, comprising exploration licenses for 2,900 square kilometers. Barrick owns 75% in PNG's Porgrera gold mine, which is forecast to produce 480,000-500,000 attributable ounces this year.
A Barrick spokeswoman said the company didn't comment on acquisition speculation.
"Lihir and Barrick are the most obvious candidates, though Lihir may be less keen to add to PNG assets on the basis of country risk," one analyst said. Lihir has one producing asset on Lihir Island in PNG, due to produce 1.2 million ounces of gold next year, and is developing the Ballarat project in Australia.
Newcrest, Australia's largest gold miner, said Thursday it had established a merger and acquisition team that is currently assessing as many as five possible acquisitions.
Newcrest was looking for deposits that would have a minimum mine life of eight years and produce more than 200,000 ounces of gold a year, the company said.
-By Elisabeth Behrmann, Dow Jones Newswires;
61-2-8235-2965; [email protected]
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11-01-07 0303ET
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