Photo credit: Papua New Guinea Mine Watch
According to the MRA chief, earnings from alluvial gold mining exports increased to K640 million in 2021 from K300 million.
Jerry Garry, the managing director of the Mineral Resources Authority, announced this in Port Moresby during the goodbye of Mining Minister Johnson Tuke.
Mr Garry claimed the industry's death rate has dropped from 10 to 6 each year to 0 in 2017 since Mining Minister Johnson Tuke assumed office.
“In 2019, the highest total mineral export revenue was K16.4bn from the mining sector from K11.2bn previously.”
“The mining sector is really compatible with LNG who came on stream in 2014 in terms of export revenue.”
“It is the biggest industry in the country,” he said.
According to MR Garry, the alluvial gold sector's export income was less than K300 million at the time, but it increased to K640 million last year.
“We assessed close to US13bn worth of projects.”
Minister Tuke has started getting Wafi up and running, and once Frieda River is operational, we will see a massive increase in our metal exports from now until 2050.
“Gold will be over 2billion ounces per annum, reaching around 5million ounces, and copper for the first time will reach 700,000 tonnes per annum, averaging around 500,000 tonnes per annum compared to around 100 t0 180 000 tonnes produced by Ok Tedi that is a significant increase in the years ahead,” he said.
Reference: Post-Courier (22 April 2022). “Export Revenue For Mining High”.
