The development of major Alluvial Mines could produce gold equivalent to the amount produced at Lihir.
Incoming Mineral Resource Authority Managing Director, Jerry Garry, said this recently.
Garry who is passionate about the Alluvial Gold Mining Sector said historical lessons in PNG have given him the drive to revisit the states intervention programs.
He said the alluvial goldfield in Bulolo, Morobe Province, conceived Placer Development Limited in 1926, which later grew from a few kilograms of gold per year to a major successful company in the world.
He said at the time of its takeover by Barrick in 1987, Placer Dome had a market capitalization of US $6.7 billion, owning and operating 16 gold mines in six different countries.
“We recognised ALGMS as very important SME’s. But previous support programs for the alluvial gold sector have failed to provide a balanced suit of clinical dosages; sufficient to incubate and grow Papua New Guinean Miners to become Placer Domes of PNG,” said Garry.
The MRA estimates that there are up to 80,000 small-scale miners in this category and as at November 2016, over 4,000 of these had completed training at the MRA’s small-scale mining centre in Wau.
Garry says if more major alluvial mines are developed, this could rival that of major mines.
“As I mentioned the opportunity lies within alluvial mining sector. This is the area where its really easy to manage, it requires simple technology, and we have the experience of Papua New Guinea who can venture into that area of mining,” said Garry.
“Right now we are producing 100, 000 ounces of gold, if we can get five projects running across the country we can match the output of Lihir, and that money, the gold bar produced from there belongs to Papua New Guinea”
According to the Papua New Guinea Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (PNG EITI) Report for 2016, nearly K500 million in exports have been recorded under the alluvial mining sector.