Buyers could line up for Harmony’s massive Papua New Guinea find

The takeover rumour mill is working overtime as speculation about the size of Harmony Gold’s Wafi-Golpu deposit increases. Harmony has already been forced to share the planet’s potentially third largest gold and copper mine with Australia’s Newcrest Mining, selling 50% of the project for $525m three years ago.

Now, as the value of Wafi-Golpu climbs – Deutsche Bank recently put it at $9.9bn – and predictions of development cost reach $5bn, other suitors may be lining up for the assets. M&A activity in the gold sector is at a 10-year high and top takeover candidates are Harmony’s South African peer Gold Fields, Canada’s Barrick Gold, Newmont Mining and partner Newcrest itself.

German investment site GeVestor reports in an article headlined ‘Goldrausch in Papua Neuguinea – Gerüchte um Harmony Gold’:

So far estimates are of 16 million ounces of gold and about 5 million tonnes of copper. The company will give concrete details of the size of the deposits in early July.

Bloomberg reports:

There have been $12.12 billion of gold takeovers announced so far this quarter, the strongest second quarter in at least ten years.

Reuters reports:

Papua New Guinea hardly offers a lower political risk environment than South Africa. In Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, it ranks 154th out of 178 countries surveyed. Papua New Guinea is also high on the radar screens of global conservation groups and campaigners as it is seen as a “Lost World” of unique wildlife and biodiversity.

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