Shareholders of New Bendigo NL have unanimously voted in favour of Harmony's offer announced on 25 Sep 01. The effective date of the transaction is 14 Dec 01. Bernard Swanepoel, Harmony's chief executive, said, "we are very pleased with the shareholders decision. Payment is being affected today and the shares will issued thereafter."
Ted Grobicki, Harmony's executive director: Australian Operations, has been appointed to the Bendigo Board and Harmony manager Ian Crowe as the mining manager.
Harmony's cash investment will be used to continue a project to develop a high grade, mechanised underground mine, with a life of 25 years. The work on the decline that was suspended earlier this year will now go ahead with the first blast scheduled for 17 Dec 01. The potential resource of the orebodies that have been analysed to date, is estimated at 12m oz of gold. The proposed mine will be developed in stages and is planned to reach its design capacity of 400 000 oz/year by 2007.
At a recovery grade of 10 - 12 g/t, the mine would be producing more that 400 000 ounces of gold pa at a cash cost of approximately US$100 per ounce. Total cash costs, including capital, for the project are estimated at US$135 per ounce. "We believe that this is one of the most exciting gold mining opportunities in Australia," says Swanepoel. "New Hampton and Hill 50 currently add approximately 520 000 oz pa to Harmony's production. At
completion of the Bendigo project, the company will control production in excess of 1 million ounces in Australia."
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