Highlands' high hopes

Highlands Pacific plans to be a high flying company on the Port Moresby Stock Exchange (POMSoX), chair Robert Bryan said. Announcing the company’s listing on POMSoX last month, Bryan said he was confident that the company would “add a substantial amount of interest to the stock exchange ... a lot of turnover, because Highlands Pacific is on the move.”

Bryan said it was appropriate for Highlands Pacific to list on POMSoX because 70 per cent of its shareholders are Papua New Guineans, of which about 4000 are individuals while the rest are held by institutions. Highlands’ listing brings to nine the companies that are listed on POMSoX. The others are Steamships, Oil Search, Orogen Minerals, Lihir, Mosaic Oil, Cue Energy, Cardia Technology and Inter Oil.

“POMSoX welcomes the listing, as it will provide an opportunity for existing shareholders to easily trade in the stock, and more importantly encourage potential Papua New Guinean investors access to the stock. “POMSoX believes that the listing of Highlands Pacific Ltd will provide an exciting opportunity and avenue for Papua New Guinea citizens to participate in one of the country’s most active resource based company.”

Welcoming Highlands Pacific Ltd, POMSoX chair Sir Anthony indicated that when POMSoX started limited trial trading in April this year, it was anticipated that in the initial year, the target would be to list ten companies.

“We are pleased to announce that within six months of trading, we have listed nine so far, one short of that target. I am confident that we will soon reach the target of ten. This reflects the confidence that these listed companies and investors have in the economy. “We will continue our efforts to secure medium-sized PNG companies to list on POMSoX to pursue the expansion of their respective businesses,” he said.

Meanwhile, Highlands Pacific has announced “spectacular drilling results” from two of its gold and copper prospects in the country. Highlands Pacific managing director lan Holzberger said the results from the Tru Kai prospect confirm the Frieda River in the West Sepik province as “world

class copper-gold porphyry deposit.”

“Three holes were drilled into the porphyry copper-gold prospect, all highly encouraging, with the best result intersecting 274 metres at 1.03 per cent copper and 0.61 per cent gram per tonne of gold, from 24 metres depth,” Highlands Pacific said. They said Tru Kai is shaping up as “having potential to add significantly to a higher grade resource component in the overall discovery.” Further drilling will be carried out at Tru Kai during this quarter.

The company also confirmed success at its Kainantu gold joint venture with Nippon Mining of Japan, where the latter is spending US$3.5 million to earn a 50 per cent interest in the prospect.

The Kainantu gold field, which covers an area of 261 square kilometres in the Eastern Highlands, is being targeted for a high grade multi-million ounce gold resource.

Highlands Pacific said results from the quarter confirm the presence of several high grade quartz pirite gold vein systems.

The company said the best results from the latest program include 10 metres at 452 grams per tonne of gold, two metres at 410 grams per tonne of gold, 26 metres at 19 grams per tonne of gold and eight metres at 55 grams per tonne of gold.

Holzberger said the results confirm the potential for major high grade gold deposits at Kainantu. Post Courier ■

Exploration work at the Highlands Pacific set-up in Frieda River

Highlands Pacific's oil fields in the hills of Papua New Guinea