Papua New Guinea has an estimated 100 million ounces of gold that is yet to be mined, says Prime Minister James Marape.
Marape said this when closing the three-day Geoscience, Exploration and Extraction Conference 2024 in Port Moresby on Friday.
He said based on 09 Aug gold price of around US$2,400 (about K9,300), the 100 million ounces would equate to a total asset base of US$150 billion (about K582 billion) worth of gold.
He described the numbers as “staggering”, considering that PNG also produces copper, nickel and silver which adds onto the asset base.
He said PNG had a young geology and that the country sat on possibly six or seven plate tectonics that were still forming, with mineralisation continuously taking place.
Marape said in terms of policy, the government was looking at ensuring that PNG harvests and processes its resources in the country, so that the nation adds value and exports finished products.
“Our markets are closer to home, not to mention markets further from us,” he said.
“We have four billion persons in the Asian region with an appetite for our resources.
“We are placed in a part of Earth that can produce resources, process resources, and supply to the market that is closer to home.”
Marape assured the mining sector that it would continue to receive government support, adding that the government was looking at improving regulatory framework and the legislative environment that did not impede investors, but at the same time the country needed to gain maximal benefits from the harvest of its resources.
He said that the government was looking at a transparent way of farming out exploration, and ensuring that the best companies were participating in exploration, and development of resources.
Marape said the Department of Mineral Policy and Geohazards Management and the Mineral Resources Authority had been asked to look at the possibility of auctioning resources.
He said this was something that the government was looking into.
“We put the resources, maps and exploration spaces on auction,” Marape said.
“The best companies out there that have cleaner technology, better resource benefit sharing formula and those that can respect my landowners and provinces better, can come in, bid, bring in the capital, and work with local partners to develop these resources.”
Meanwhile, Mineral Resources Authority managing director Jerry Garry says Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) copper-gold mine can operate for another 100 years, thanks to its continued investment into exploration work in Western.
“I believe Ok Tedi will be here for another 100 years,” he told Prime Minster James Marape when closing a three-day Geoscience, Exploration and Extraction Conference 2024 in Port Moresby on Friday.
“The recent work done at Ok Tedi, in connecting Mt Ian intrusive complex to the north and the Ok Tedi complex with the accidental discovery of breccia and the level of scientific work that went through to suggest that there is probably one mother that is driving all these over a distance of 2km or 4km radius, is amazing.”
Ok Tedi has an annual revenue of about US$1 billion (about K3.9 billion), and annual profit of around US$200 million (K786 million).
OTML’s Allan Ila presented during the conference on the potential for deep-seated porphyry copper-cold intrusive stocks at Townsville (project name) and Willington (project name) copper-gold-silver skarn prospects in the Ok Tedi region.
OTML has five exploration tenements, namely Kauwol (Exploration License (EL) 1677), Townsville (EL2156), Bubu (EL2472), Anju (EL2256) and Dorongo (EL2289.
OTML has one special mining lease which covers the OK Tedi Mine, and it also covers the Wellington (project name) project and New York (project name) breccia.
Ila said the New York project had a potential for underground (UG) mining, it is a deep au (gold)-breccia system with breccia pipe of over 500m. “There are high gold grades at the bottom which shows favourable conditions for porphyry at depth.”
He said the Wellington prospect was a massive gold-copper skarn and depth breccia system.
“It has a potential for open cut and underground,” Ila said.
“Currently, we have designed a drilling programme, we have designed four holes that we will be drilling 1,000m depth each. “That is the target depth so hopefully we find another breccia pipe body in Wellington or we find another intrusive stock at depth,” he said.