Photo credit: Newcrest
According to managing director Jerry Garry of the Papua New Guinea Mineral Resources Authority (MRA), processing and shipping of the gold or copper from the Wafi-Golpu project will take six years.
He commended the province executive council and Morobe Governor Luther Wenge for promoting the project's launch.
Wenge announced that Morobe has approved the start-up of the US$5.4 billion (K18.5 billion) Wafi-Golpu project.
Wenge said that Wafi Golpu was a source of income that Morobe was losing out on as a result of the delay in starting it up.
He declared that the Morobe administration, commanded by the late governor Gibson Saonu, would drop all legal actions.
Wenge stated that the province was ready to formally approve the mine and the deep sea tailing placement (Dstp) technique of mine waste disposal in December.
“Wafi-Golpu will open and DSTP will go on.
“Anyone who disagrees can take it to court with their own research and facts,” he said.
Garry said: “That is very positive support. As a regulator, (the MRA is) pleased.
“In terms of project permitting, we recognise that the project has some more work to do.
“They (operator) must be permitted to go underground, drill more holes, understand the rock formation and improve their confidence in the mineral resource itself.
“Within the five years, they will be doing a lot of drilling and developing platforms for the construction of the mine, etc.”
Reference: Pacific Mining Watch (11 September 2022). “It will take six years to process gold, copper for Wafi-Golpu Project in PNG : MRA”.
