Newcrest to Develop Mines with Harmony Gold

Australia's Newcrest Mining is to pay US$525m (A$558m) to co-develop mines in Papua New Guinea (PNG) together with South Africa's Harmony Gold.

Newcrest has agreed to buy a 50 percent stake in the Hidden Valley gold and silver mine and Wafi copper and gold deposit in PNG.

The deal will give it a share in around 15.2 million ounces of gold, 1.76 million tonnes of copper and 51 million ounces of silver estimated to lie in the undeveloped deposits.

Hidden Valley is a gold and silver project located southwest of Lae in Moroboe province, PNG.

Currently under construction, commissioning of the project is on schedule for 2009.

Newcrest says Wafi Golpu is a "highly prospective" region containing two advanced stage exploration projects – the Wafi gold project and the Golpu Porphyry copper/gold project.

By Ozge Ibrahim