The two licences targeting gold and copper opportunities total 14,242sq. km between the Morobe and Central provinces.

The licence for the Rigo project about 70km southeast of Port Moresby is considered prospective for copper porphyry deposits while the Garaina licence includes a large tract of Morobe's Owen Stanley fault zone.

A third licence application by the JV for gold exploration at Milne Bay's Rossel Island is still pending.

The arrangement includes a 70% stake for RHG subsidiary RH Resources and 30% for Siburan, and represents an attempt by the Malaysian to branch out into minerals exploration.

Siburan's portfolio consists of a variety of gold and uranium projects in Western Australia with most centred around the goldfields region, while it also has a tungsten project in New Zealand.

Siburan first announced its move into searching for PNG project opportunities in June and said it was "excited" to be working with RHR.

RH Group is the biggest player in PNG's timber industry, owns The National newspaper in the country and also has a considerable property portfolio in PNG.