* Golpu project to cost $4.8 billion
* Harmony sees Golpu production in 2019
* Doesn’t see need for additional funding until 2017
(Recasts with additional detail, quotes)
By Sherilee Lakmidas
JOHANNESBURG, Aug 29 (Reuters) – Harmony Gold Mining
, South Africa’s third-largest gold producer, said Papua
New Guinea would have to pay if it wanted a stake in the
company’s promising Golpu project in the Asian country.
Harmony is staking its future on the $4.8 billion project it
is developing with Australian group Newcrest Mining.
Papua New Guinea has the right to a 30 percent stake in
mining operations. Harmony chief executive Graham Briggs said on
Wednesday if the government exercised this option it would
include development costs already forked out.
“This is not a free carry, it will be full participation if
the government gets involved. Assuming they would take 30
percent, they would have to pay 30 percent of the historical
costs,” Briggs told analysts on a conference call.
The gold and copper project’s prefeasibility study estimates
an initial mine life of 26 years with annual production of
490,000 ounces of gold and 290,000 tonnes of copper.
Continued…
