Bright prospects for gold

By Martin Tiffany

Discoveries of substantial deposits of gold and associ ated metals in Papua New Guinea highlight the excel lent gold potential of the entire region of the Outer Melanesian arc system in the Southwest Pacific, according to a report published by the Honolulu-based East- West Centre.

This region covers central and north ern PNG, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji, Twenty-two major gold deposits are scattered through the region many newly discovered.

Over the last decade PNG has the most impressive record on new gold discoveries and still is not fully explored.

The potential of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are even less well-known.

The report, Gold Potential Southwest Pacific says these countries of the Outer Melanesian arcs and their gold potential have a promising decade ahead.

With an increase in gold prices, nearly all available space was taken up in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji. Several large gold deposits were

discovered.

One is the Ladolam deposit, on Lihir Island in PNG (although geographically part of the Solomons) which has esti mated gold reserves of 19 million oz.

Another is the Porgera deposit in central PNG which contains around nine million ounces of recoverable gold, valued at about USS 3 billion and has begun production.

In the Solomon Islands, Gold Ridge, in Central Guadalcanal, is a potentially rich deposit and a mining lease to start mining has been requested. Gold reserves are quoted at 1.3 million tonnes, valued at about USS4O million.

There are other prospects in the Solomons that are likely to be released for further exploration.

In Fiji, the Emperor Mine at Vatu koula on Viti Levu began production in 1935 and was estimated capable of producing some 130,000 oz of gold per year. The nearby Nasomo deposit has an estimated 300,000 tonnes of ore at 14g/t gold.

On Fiji’s second largest island, Vanua Levu, a relatively small prospect at Mt Kasi is being evaluated. This could

>”7' With the recent high prices recorded for copper, the Namosi prospect in Fiji is being actively assessed and could be developed as a significant copper/gold prospect comparable to the Bougainville

mine. Neighbouring Vanuatu is not currently a gold producer but has promising prospects with three deposits under exploration.

With the development of Gold Ridge, the Solomons mineral sector is expected to jump from representing one per cent of export earnings to become the third largest earner. Over the past five years, annual gold production has increased by about 50 per cent, from 890,000 ounces

(27.7 tonnes) to 1,330,000 ounces (41.4 tonnes). By the mid-1990s the western Pacific rim including Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia could well become the second-largest gold producer after South Africa. PNG alone is pro jected to produce some 2.7 million ounces (about 84 tonnes) of gold per year nearly US$l billion at today’s prices, by the mid-19905. The Ladolam deposit in PNG may yet become the country’s

largest gold de posit, with gold reserves valued at SUS 9 billion.

The report says “because of the epithermal char acter of the gold deposits, and the resultant relative ease of mining by open-pit methods, and because gold prices are ex pected to hold, the long-term out look for the region Papua New Guin ea-to-Fiji is at tractive.” □