Corrects company name to Harmony Gold, not Rainbow Minerals, in headline, paragraph 1 and in media identifier

By Colleen Goko and Nqobile Dludla

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 18 (Reuters) - South Africa's Harmony Gold HARJ.J is evaluating a substantial copper venture in Papua New Guinea in partnership with U.S. mining giant Newmont Corporation NEM.N, Chairman Patrice Motsepe said on Tuesday.

"There's a huge investment that we are currently looking at in Papua New Guinea," Motsepe said at an event hosted by Bloomberg. "We've got a partnership there with Newmont that might require as much as four or five billion dollars to be invested down the line."

Motsepe said his company's financial position is sufficiently robust for such a project.

The company has 13 billion rand ($756.2 million) in cash plus facilities for a further 7 billion rand, he said.

A lot of that money is going to be used in Australia and Papua New Guinea, which are primarily copper regions, he said, adding that shareholders would expect the company to look at those.

The Papua New Guinea investment is viewed as a long-term strategy aligned with global decarbonisation trends and rising demand for critical minerals, Motsepe said.

African Rainbow Minerals ARIJ.J, a company founded by Motsepe and which is an investor in Harmony, will also continue investments in gold, platinum group metals, iron ore and manganese in South Africa, alongside a copper stake in Canada, Motsepe added.

($1 = 17.1921 rand)

(Reporting by Colleen Goko and Nqobile DludlaEditing by David Goodman)

((Colleen.Goko@thomsonreuters.com;))