Firm sees PNG as cheap option to ship sand

Business

AUSTRALIA firm Mayur Resources plans to ship fine-grained sand from Gulf to Sydney.
The Australian company is currently developing industrial power generation platform in PNG.
It has a diversified portfolio which includes a pipeline of exploration and development projects.
Mayur chief executive Paul Mulder said the variety of sand was the most valued by cement makers and the most sought after construction sand which was in short supply in Sydney.
He said the type of sand was currently being supplied from quarries in the Newcastle region, New South Wales, and then trucked to Sydney at great cost.
Mulder said it was cheaper to ship the sand from PNG, “where the sand will be an otherwise waste product from Mayur’s proposed Orokolo Bay project”.
Mayur’s PNG assets also included limestone, copper-gold tenements and coal projects, as well as a planned coal-fired power station to be built near Lae.
The project remained subject to a feasibility study with total the cost of $US22m (K68.1m).
With more than 12,000sq km of highly prospective exploration tenements available to be drilled, Mayur is confident to plan trial shipments to customers in China and Japan within 14 months.
The Lae coal power project is estimated over A$110 million (K340.6m) and will involve shipping coal from Mayur’s Depot Creek project.
The power plant, which had been granted environmental approval, remained subject to a power purchasing agreement execution with PNG Power Limited.
However, Mulder is confident that the power project will ultimately prevail because of the need for reliable low-cost electricity.