PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill welcomes Anglo American Investment to Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister  Peter O’Neill, has welcomed the entry of the Anglo American Ltd to Papua New Guinea during a meeting with executives of the company and Highlands Pacific yesterday in Port Moresby.

Prime Minister Hon. Peter O’Neill said Highlands Pacific, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Anglo American Plc, has recently executed the joint venture and farm-in agreements for the Star Mountains copper gold project near the Ok Tedi Mine.

“Anglo American have demonstrated their confidence in the investment potential of Papua New Guinea and we welcome their participation. “This is a wise decision for their shareholders and we look forward to an enduing relationship in the decades to come.”

Highlands Pacific Managing Director John Gooding thanked the Prime Minister for the opportunity to meet and said the signing of the agreements represented a major step forward for Highlands Pacific and PNG.

“Anglo American is a highly reputable international company that brings great exploration and development experience to the Star Mountains project,” Mr Gooding said. “Together we can move forward with a clear exploration program that will test the size and grade of these exciting targets.”

The exploration and development joint venture proposal was originally announced on 8 December 2014 and the general terms of the joint venture and farm-in remain as announced at that date.

Preparation for the upcoming exploration and drilling operation will now ramp-up, with a four hole, 3,000 metre campaign to begin in April 2015. Highlands Pacific is a PNG incorporated and registered mining and exploration company with major assets are interests the US$2.1bn Ramu nickel cobalt mine and the Frieda River copper gold project, with exploration in progress in the Star Mountains.

Highlands Pacific also has exploration tenements at Muller Range on the border of the Western and Southern Highlands Provinces and on Normanby Island (Sewa Bay).

Prime Minister Hon. Peter O’Neill acknowledged the great deal of copper/gold potential Star Mountains has, given it has only been drilled twice in the last 50 years. The area was originally drilled by Kennecott in the late 1960’s after discovering the Mt Fubilan deposit that Ok Tedi Mining Limited has been operating for decades. It was then drilled by Highlands Pacific since 2010, where 28 diamond drill holes were drilled over six prospects producing major intersections of copper gold porphyry mineralization.

Highlands’ Star Mountains exploration tenements cover 515 square kilometers and are located within the prospective New Guinean Orogenic Belt, which includes the Grasberg, Ok Tedi, Porgera and Hidden Valley mines.