THE resources sector is contributing 39 per cent of the Papua New Guinea's gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Chamber of Mines and Petroleum.
Vice-president Philip Samar said exploration was crucial for the continuance of the industry as existing mines reach the end of their lives such as Ok Tedi which is set to cease operations by 2030.
“Exploration is a high risk business with a failure rate of 99 per cent,” he said.
“For every 1,000 exploration prospects, only 50 will move to advanced exploration followed by only two that will move to feasibility studies and only one will become a mine.
“Ramu took 50 years from discovery to development while Lihir, Porgera and Ok Tedi took just under 20 years plus a very significant amount of investment and expertise, so we need to act now to revive the exploration sector or the next 50 years will be bleak with no new mines for development.”
Information from the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) shows that in 2011 alone the whole country was covered with exploration licences.
However, all of these activities have now dried up with only a handful of exploration licences in operation in 2022.
Samar said the chamber was committed to partnering with the Government to address the key elements necessary to encourage exploration and mining such as:
- PROSPECTIVITY;
- CLEAR legal authority;
- SECURITY of tenure and transferability of exploration and mining rights;
- EXCLUSIVITY of exploration and mining rights;
- NON-DISCRIMINATION between local and foreign nationals;
- PREFERENTIAL right to convert an exploration licence to mining licence;
- REASONABLE royalty rates;
- TRANSPARENT licensing procedures;
- CLEAR and uniform policy on government ownership; and,
- PROTECTION against speculation.