MOROBE Mining Joint Ventures general manager - sustainability and external relations David Wissink says prospects for its proposed new Wafi-Golpu copper-gold mine in Morobe province look very good.
“It’s a very exciting prospect,” he told The National during a short site visit by helicopter on Saturday.
“It looks very good.
“It looks to be a long-term, large-scale project for Papua New Guinea.”
A mineral resources estimate as at June 2011 estimated that Wafi-Golpu deposits contained 26.6 million ounces of gold and three million tonnes of copper.
The project contains one of the highest grade porphyry copper systems in Southeast Asia with average grades in excess of 0.5 grams per tonne gold and 0.9% copper, making the resource comparable with other world-class systems.
The project comprises a major epithermal gold structure known as the Wafi gold deposit with two porphyry copper-gold deposits, Golpu and Nambongu North, in close proximity.
Now in pre-feasibility stage in a joint-venture with Newcrest Gold of Australia, Wafi-Golpu is set to follow South African miner Harmony’s Hidden Valley copper-gold mine that came into production in September 2010, also in a joint-venture with Newcrest.
“With Wafi project right now we’re in the pre-feasibility stage,” Wissink said.
“That means we’re defining a lot of the studies,
“Hopefully, we should have a pre-feasibility document done by the end of July, sometime in August.
“So right now there’s a lot of drilling on site to define what the resource is.”
Wissink said MMJV was talking with the government to comply with all requirements and environmental permits.
The Wafi-Golpu project is located 80km from Lae and is easily accessed by sealed road to Timini-Demakwa and then via a 38km dirt base track to the project.
The site is 4km from the broad Watut and Markham Valley plains
“It’s a very exciting prospect,” he told The National during a short site visit by helicopter on Saturday.
“It looks very good.
“It looks to be a long-term, large-scale project for Papua New Guinea.”
 |
An aerial view of the project site at Wafi on Saturday.-Nationalpic by MALUM NALU |
A mineral resources estimate as at June 2011 estimated that Wafi-Golpu deposits contained 26.6 million ounces of gold and three million tonnes of copper.
The project contains one of the highest grade porphyry copper systems in Southeast Asia with average grades in excess of 0.5 grams per tonne gold and 0.9% copper, making the resource comparable with other world-class systems.
The project comprises a major epithermal gold structure known as the Wafi gold deposit with two porphyry copper-gold deposits, Golpu and Nambongu North, in close proximity.
Now in pre-feasibility stage in a joint-venture with Newcrest Gold of Australia, Wafi-Golpu is set to follow South African miner Harmony’s Hidden Valley copper-gold mine that came into production in September 2010, also in a joint-venture with Newcrest.
“With Wafi project right now we’re in the pre-feasibility stage,” Wissink said.
“That means we’re defining a lot of the studies,
“Hopefully, we should have a pre-feasibility document done by the end of July, sometime in August.
“So right now there’s a lot of drilling on site to define what the resource is.”
Wissink said MMJV was talking with the government to comply with all requirements and environmental permits.
The Wafi-Golpu project is located 80km from Lae and is easily accessed by sealed road to Timini-Demakwa and then via a 38km dirt base track to the project.
The site is 4km from the broad Watut and Markham Valley plains