Harmony Gold Transforms By Adding Near-term Copper Production In A Tier 1 Mining Jurisdiction
Harmony Gold Transforms By Adding Near-term Copper Production In A Tier 1 Mining Jurisdiction. In line with its strategic objective of transitioning into a low-cost gold and copper mining company, Harmony announces that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the entity which owns 100% of the Eva copper project (“Eva Copper”) and a package of regional exploration tenements from Copper Mountain Mining Corporation (“Copper Mountain”) for an upfront cash consideration of US$170 million (approximately R3 billion) plus a contingent payment of up to a maximum of US$60 million (approximately R1.1 billion).
Eva Copper and the acquired tenements comprise 2 295 square kilometres of tenure within the world-class North West Minerals Province in Queensland, Australia. The acquisition of Eva Copper will add 1.718 billion pounds of copper and 260 000 ounces of gold to Harmony’s Mineral Reserves and extend the Company’s diversification into copper, a future-facing metal critical to the energy transition. Peter Steenkamp, Chief Executive Officer of Harmony, said: “Acquiring Eva Copper is strategically important to our growth journey. It opens a new copper-gold frontier for Harmony within a highly attractive Australian mining area, supplementing our 50% interest in the Tier 1 copper-gold Wafi-Golpu project. Eva Copper lowers our risk profile, providing additional scale and meaningful diversification that positions Harmony for the future.”
As a gold mining and exploration company, with a Tier 1 copper footprint (the Wafi-Golpu copper-gold porphyry), this acquisition is aligned with Harmony’s strategy. Diversifying into copper enables Harmony to participate in the global transition to a low-carbon economy. This Transaction will lower Harmony’s overall risk profile and strengthen its cash flow in the medium to long term through: introducing copper exposure while diversifying internationally: Australia is a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction and the acquisition supports the strategic intention of growing Harmony’s margins and increasing its exposure to copper via investment in high-quality assets. Mining leases and an environmental authority for Eva Copper have been granted, and an amendment, which reflects updates to the project configuration, is well advanced. The acquired assets furthermore present excellent exploration potential both on-site and in the region. It will also strengthen through, low execution risk: the project will have a short construction period of two to three years. Ramp-up to full production will be quick due to the shallowness of the orebody. Supporting infrastructure in the surrounding region further mitigates execution risks. Ultimately, Eva Copper will be a large, high-volume conventional open pit mine, with a low strip ratio,a simple process plant and attractive copper and gold recoveries.
Eva Copper is an Iron Oxide Copper gold deposit and, together with the exploration package, sits within the world-class North West Minerals Province. It is located 75 kilometres (“km”) from the town of Cloncurry and 95 km north-east of Mount Isa in north-west Queensland, Australia. The project area has five mining leases and 16 granted exploration permits over 2 100 square km.Eva Copper has a Mineral Resource base, including the Inferred Resource, of 307 million tonnes (“Mt”) at 0.42% Cu, 0.04g/t Au for 2.85 billion pounds contained copper and 381koz Au and a Mineral Reserve of 171 Mt grading 0.46% Cu and 0.05 g/t Au for 1.718 billion pounds contained copper, and 260k oz contained gold.
