Copper Mountain Mining has entered into a definitive agreement with Harmony Gold to sell its Eva copper project and 2,100-kilometre exploration land package in Queensland, Australia for a total consideration of up to US$230 million.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.

“We are pleased with this transaction as it demonstrates the value the company has developed in the Eva copper project since our acquisition of Altona Mining Limited in 2018. It also recognizes the exploration upside that exists on the surrounding prospective land package,” said Copper Mountain President and CEO Gil Clausen.

The acquisition of Eva will add 1.718 billion pounds of copper and 260,000 ounces of gold to Harmony’s Mineral Reserves and extend the South African miner’s diversification into copper, a future-facing metal critical to the global energy transition. 

“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 [in Papua New Guinea]. Eva Copper lowers our risk profile, providing additional scale and meaningful diversification that positions Harmony for the future,” said Peter Steenkamp, Harmony Gold chief executive.

Eva is located 75 km from the town of Cloncurry and 95 km northeast of Mt Isa. The project is envisioned as a conventional open pit with a crush, grind and flotation circuit. Annual production is projected to be 100 million pounds of copper and 14,000 ounces of gold over an expected mine life of 15 years.

Sources: Copper Mountain Mining and Harmony Gold