Awareness on mining and exploration vital: Expert

AS the extractive industry in PNG continues to grow, the need for people to understand the difference between exploration and mining processes becomes important, geologist Fiona Karau says.
Kirau, the Lihir Gold Limited’s mine ore knowledge superintendent, said this was so that people could positively participate in making right decisions that could bring development, reduce poverty and boost their local economy.
She said exploration and mining were not the same process.
Karau said geologists at Lihir mine had explained that exploration was the process in which geologists collected data which determined whether minerals in any target area was of commercial value and interest. This means that when geologists engage in the exploration process, they look for rocks that indicate the presence of minerals.
With the data already available from geological surveys conducted in the past and kept in a data base with the Mineral Resource Authority, companies can then submit their applications and investigate on what mineral is of interest to them.
She said geologists of resourced companies took risks by investing in costly exploration programmes in remote parts of the world.
“Investors observe chances and when chances look positive, they take risks in spending money, hoping for good results or returns,” she said.
“The mining process only takes place slowly when the data collected through the exploration process shows significant commercial value and interest.”