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Australian experts have suggested that only one out of 300 exploration projects will end up becoming a successful mining operation which suggests one might have better odds in a casino.
Nur 1 von 300 Explorern erreicht die Profitabilität was bedeutet dass die Chancen im Kasino bedeutend besser sind.
Da sollte man doch mal sein Depot nach Explorern durchstöbern u. sich die Frage stellen ob man wirklich sicher ist diese EINE drin zu haben.;-)))))))
I recall one labour economist noting that 10% of jobs were lost in Port Moresby when the Bougainville Copper mine shut down in the late 1980s
Durch die Schliessung der Panguna Mine ende der 80er wurden 10% aller Jobs in POM vernichtet.Daran lässt sich wohl der Impakt von BOC auf die PNG Wirtschaft am besten verdeutlichen.
Mining – firing from all cylinders
The two-day mining seminar that just ended has been the most successful ever held in this country.
These annual seminars organised by the PNG Chamber of Mines & Petroleum are basically technical updates of various projects, particularly from an exploration aspect.
Most of the people attending were highly qualified geologists and geophysicists in senior positions in their companies who were interested in an update on exploration.
In a sense, this is part of the industry effort to provide a high level of transparency on mining sector activities.
The major companies such as Ok Tedi, Lihir and Porgera tend to provide more of a corporate overview of activities and this is also important because these are world-scale entities.
Many readers of The National, which provides the best news coverage of this sector, would be aware that exploration and mining currently provide the brightest spot in the economy.
A mood of enthusiasm certainly pervaded the Chamber’s seminar, attended by record numbers of more than 300 people.
Among them were very highly regarded and well experienced exploration people representing companies such as Rio Tinto, which remains very knowledgeable about PNG geology through a long history of involvement, and others such as American giants Newmont and Freeport.
Newmont operates one of the world’s great copper mines at Batu Hijau on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia while Freeport operates the huge copper-gold mine in West Papua.
Various factors have contributed to the success. Among them the very high prices that commodities such as copper, nickel and gold currently enjoy; Papua New Guinea’s excellent geological prospectivity and a good financial and investment climate.
Throughout much of the 1990s PNG was out of favour with global exploration companies because of bad policies and a poor fiscal regime that did not take into account the high risks involved in exploration.
Australian experts have suggested that only one out of 300 exploration projects will end up becoming a successful mining operation which suggests one might have better odds in a casino.
I visited one such casino in Adelaide a few weeks ago and was greeted by a poster at the reception which, in a friendly fashion, warned customers that casinos were places where people lost money!
So when explorers throw millions of dollars into painstaking and detailed work in various countries and environments, they are generally hoping to find so-called “elephants” like Porgera, Ok Tedi and Lihir or some juicer smaller mines with very low operating costs and high profit margins.
But the development challenges can be quite onerous. Despite the huge profits (and taxes) flowing from Ok Tedi into the PNG economy these days, former owner BHP Billiton was forced to write off billions of dollars in its early years due to its poor performance.
And of course this mine is going to leave a lasting legacy for many generations of great environmental damage, possibly a subject for another day.
Lihir too has had its tough early years while Porgera, which started with a bang as a million ounce producer, has been going through some trying times lately.
The more recently opened Kainantu gold mine, which is in the process of being sold off to Barrick, has lost a small fortune for owner-developer Highlands Pacific although it was earmarked as a big profit spinner.
But, getting back to the explorers who met here in Port Moresby; they are a rare and tough breed who love working in challenging environments and who enjoy “the thrill of the chase”.
This was how every one of PNG’s big mines was discovered. Their academic discipline, and mental make-up, cuts across various boundaries and explorationists don’t just go about bashing rocks with their special hammers.
Besides a scientific understanding of minerals and their modes of formation, they have to consider climatic factors, river patterns and understand and recreate ancient environments that existed hundreds of millions of years ago.
But because of dedicated work of people like Prof Hugh Davies and many of his predecessors at the School of Geology at the University of Papua New Guinea, this country boasts its share of well qualified geoscientists.
The Australian government may not like the idea of allowing Papua New Guineans to undertake seasonal work there, but Australian companies have been raiding PNG’s mining companies for highly talented workers, even poaching tradesmen these days.
They can be found working at many mines around Australia and, indeed, some have important roles in other overseas countries.
During the years when mining and exploration activity was dwindling, only the more fortunate ones found jobs overseas, but many can now choose to work with local companies.
For the first time the newly formed Mineral Resources Authority had a high profile at the seminar and, that too, provides another reason for confidence about the future.
MRA has become the key authority managing the granting of leases and the monitoring exploration activities. It is setting up a world-class framework to encourage such activities, including the hiring and training of local geoscientists.
Speaking at the seminar, MRA’s managing director Kepas Wali was able to assure many doubting Papua New Guineans that exploration and mining will remain a vibrant sector and not face a sudden death in the middle of the next decade, as many have predicted.
Current projections are that copper production will be at least double what Ok Tedi is producing by 2015, two years after Ok Tedi’s proposed shutdown, and gold production would increase by an even bigger margin.
The new projects will generate direct and indirect jobs even though many people tend to denigrate mining as a largely enclave activity that has little impact on the broader economy.
I recall one labour economist noting that 10% of jobs were lost in Port Moresby when the Bougainville Copper mine shut down in the late 1980s.
What is happening in our mining sector is a valuable template for our policymakers and bureaucrats. There are lessons to be learned here about how the country may be able to provide a better investment climate for other sectors, including agriculture, industry and tourism. |
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