By JASON SOM KAUT
ALLUVIAL gold mining activities are booming in anticipation of huge returns as world gold prices reach an all-time high.
Gold prices are better than ever and many local buyers and small scale smelters have seen an increase in business.
World gold price yesterday stood at US$880 in London and US$884 on the New York market.
The Melanesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry yesterday said it had seen an increase between 20% and 30% of customers wanting to utilise their small-scale smelting facilities.
Chamber president Gabriel Miriye said: “Gold prices are better than ever and is a boost for alluvial gold miners.”
He said many people were leaving their jobs to venture into small-scale mining activities.
Locally, prices were ranging between from as low as K35 per gram to between K60 and K80/g for high grade.
Justin Edimani, officer in charge of the recently established small-scale mining training centre in Wau, confirmed the increase, saying according to conservative estimates there were previously about 50,000 small-scale miners in the country – or 0.9% of the population.
“That has increased rapidly since last year and we are now looking at an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 small-scale miners in PNG,” Mr Edimani said.
The European Union-funded centre was expected to open on May 9 and would carry out training into small-scale mining and awareness on the importance of safety.
The centre has designed a data base it will trial this year as it endeavours to collect hard data of all alluvial mining activities and miners in PNG.
He revealed that initial statistics collected under a recent AusAID sponsored surveying programme showed that areas that had low alluvial mining activity had boomed.
Sepik had about 10,000 not long ago but now has 20,000 miners.
Areas that had no alluvial mining activities like Simbu, which had less than 10 now, had well over 100 people involved.
Men, women and children were venturing into small-scale mining with the SSM centre focused on introducing small scale mining into family units in the near future.
According to Mr Edimani, gold dust containing about 50% impurities was selling between K30-K35 while melted gold with 90-95% purity was selling between K70 and K75.
Highlighting some challenges facing the sector he revealed they were working on regulatory compliance framework, proper usage of mercury and compiling hard data for the small scale mining sector.
He urged people to be safety and health conscious when panning for gold.