Photo: Sam Basil Junior. credit: Sam Basil Junior Facebook Page
The alluvial mining sector is a fast-growing sector in Papua New Guinea, with more than 80,000 alluvial miners engaged in the sector, which also generates a significant amount of export receipts in millions of kina to the PNG economy annually.
The Bulolo area in Morobe has been known for its alluvial mining activities since the colonial era. This area is still active today, but it has been found that certain individuals who are not locals and landowners in the area have been granted licenses to carry out alluvial mining in the Wau Bulolo area.
These concerns have been raised and forwarded to the Wau Bulolo MP Sam Basil Jnr, who in turn raised it on the floor of Parliament last week with Mining Minister Ano Pala.
Basil Jnr questioned the laws surrounding the alluvial mining sector, particularly on why Landowners' rights were overlooked and not prioritized and urged the Mining Minister to clarify why locals are not being protected.
"This is in regard to the need to amend the Mining Act of 1992, particularly relating to the protection of landowner rights, especially in the sector of alluvial mining. If the mining department has not started work on amending the Mining Act yet, does it have any plans to push for an alluvial mining act that will protect Landowner rights over other citizens?" Mr. Basil Jnr said.
Mr. Pala said his department is working to amend certain sections of the alluvial mining laws to give more access and opportunities to locals. The minister also stated that currently there is confusion surrounding this law and the amendments that will be made will qualify who should conduct alluvial mining and where it should be conducted.
"Under the law that is in place now, it states that only Landowners can operate in alluvial gold mining, but there are instances where exploration licenses have been issued to other parties who are not landowners to conduct alluvial mining operations," Mr. Pala said.
The mining minister said there is a lot of confusion relating to alluvial mining since the laws relating to it are from the colonial era. He gave assurance that the process of amending these laws is in progress and will come through with amendments to the Mining Act.
Mr. Pala said these confusions surrounding the laws relating to alluvial mining will be sorted out shortly.
"I agree that there are some adjustments that need to be made because only nationals are allowed to do alluvial gold mining. But unfortunately, the current law also states that someone can get an exploration license to operate alluvial mining over the area in which you have the legal right and that is now the area of concern that the mining department is looking to amend and sort out," he said.
As of November 2020, more than 100 leaseholders have registered with the Morobe Alluvial Mining Limited created by the former Morobe Governor Ginson Saonu to participate in projects in the areas of Wau and Bulolo.
Before these, in a report in August last year by the Post Courier, Justin Parker, CEO of Golden Valley Enterprise, a mining and metals company that specializes in buying and smelting gold, also expressed his concern about the lack of Government intervention in this sector.
He stated there was a huge need to mechanize alluvial mining in PNG and the Government must take responsibility in supporting the sector because there are families in rural settings that mostly benefit from it.
Alluvial mining is a legally recognized economic activity and is readily seen in all provinces of the country. Leases are held only by naturalized citizens, who must be the owner of the land over which the lease falls, and gold is the mineral usually mined alluvially across PNG.
