Motsepe eyes $5bn copper investment in Papua New Guinea

ARM has R13bn in cash on hand

- By Tebogo Magoba and ESG Now

South Africa's African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) is making bold moves in the copper space, and its alignment with Harmony Gold underscores just how serious the mining group is about playing for the long-term, green-economy game.

At a Bloomberg-hosted event this month, Patrice Motsepe, chairman of ARM, laid out a multibillion-dollar joint copper venture in Papua New Guinea (PNG) with Newmont Corporation. This could become one of their most significant investments in critical minerals yet.

ARM frames this as a long-term, sustainability-aligned bet. Motsepe tied the PNG project explicitly to global decarbonisation trends and the surging demand for critical minerals such as copper. In his words, it is "a long-term strategy", one that positions ARM as a player in the transition to a low-carbon world.